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That Sigmund Freud was a born leader with a burning desire for knowledge appears at every stage of his personality development; also that he resented injustice and longed to combat it effectively. We learn that, even though as a boy he chose the great military leader Hannibal for his hero, he seems to have had no desire to win glory as a soldier himself; rather, he seems to have felt that the career of a statesman would provide greater opportunity to fight for truth and justice. For fight he must; he simply could not be a passive onlooker in a world where falsehood and injustice were causing so much unhappiness.
Doubtless the anti-semitic discriminations under which he and his people suffered humiliation and unfair restraint helped him realize that both knowledge and power would be required to combat political and social injustice, especially as he had always felt within himself an intense desire “to be the strong man,” the man who directs affairs. And to fit himself for a position of leadership he at first decided to study jurisprudence.
And the sincerity of Freud's high aim is proven by another remarkable quality of his, namely, his fine adjustability to changing conditions, his readiness to change a concept or plan when new views of truth showed him a better way, a higher goal. This is apparent from his quick decision, just before entering the university, to take up natural science and medicine instead of law, because a new view of truth came to him when he heard Goethe's essay on “Nature” read, in the light of which he then believed that the fight for the relief of human misery…physical illness and mental agony…provided an even worthier opportunity for promoting truth and justice by combatting ignorance and prejudice, Nor did Freud yield easily to the influence of popular opinion. Eager to learn all that was offered at the university in connection with his chosen course, he remained at his studies longer than was customary, though he knew that some people were won