Sigmund Freud wasn’t just the father of psychoanalysis—he was also full of quirks. He smoked up to 20 cigars a day, even after developing jaw cancer, insisting, "Cigars are indispensable to me."

Before probing the human mind, Freud dissected hundreds of eels in a failed attempt to find their reproductive organs. He later turned his focus to dreams and the unconscious—decidedly less slippery work.

Despite his deep dive into others’ psyches, Freud had his own anxieties, including a fear of fainting in public and a phobia of hotel room number 62. He also dabbled in cocaine, once promoting it as a wonder drug for migraines and depression.

Freud was his own patient, using self-analysis to shape his groundbreaking ideas. His dream journal helped inspire The Interpretation of Dreams (1900).

He adored ancient artifacts, collecting Egyptian and Greek statuettes he believed reflected the timeless layers of the human mind. And he loved dogs—especially his chow chow, Jofi, who sat in on therapy sessions as a kind of four-legged assistant.

Freud only visited the U.S. once, in 1909, hated the experience, and never came back—calling America “a gigantic mistake.”