5. Freud entered private practice in 1886, the year he married
When Freud left the Vienna hospital to enter private practice it was after he had developed a reputation as being an emerging expert in the field of “nervous disorders”. He had lectured at the University of Vienna and at other institutions on his studies in the field, which had developed as an extension of his research into cocaine. He married the granddaughter of a prominent Viennese rabbi, Martha Bernays, and began to emerge as socially prominent within the Jewish community of Vienna. He also by then was seldom seen without a cigar, smoking 20 or more per day.
Freud began to use the emerging science of hypnosis as part of his treatment of patients suffering from “nervous disorders”, a technique he had observed in Paris. In Freud’s hands, the patient was allowed to answer questions, but Freud did not induce suggestions as treatment. He developed the means of allowing the patient, under hypnosis, to revisit buried memories of past trauma, until they were revealed and found to be troubling no more. His results were inconsistent, with some taking longer than others, but the Vienna medical community were soon discussing the “talking cures” being realized by Freud.