Mark Manson

So our story begins with a chance encounter between Sigmund Freud and a recent college graduate.

And this encounter would go on to change the path of the field of psychology and influence how we see human nature.

So there was a young man named Gordon Alport.

He had just graduated from college.

It was around 1920.

And he had just finished up a study abroad program in Turkey.

Like many recent college grads, he wanted to backpack across Europe.

And on his way back, he thought, what would be cooler than to stop in Vienna and visit Sigmund Freud?

Now, Freud at the time was an intellectual celebrity.

He was world renowned by this point.

And a lot of people would make pilgrimages to Vienna to meet him and to even be analyzed by him.

So Alport wrote a letter.

He reached out.

Freud said, sure, come on by.

And they set up the meeting.

It's important to note that Gordon Alport was not a psychologist.

He didn't study psychology in school.

He didn't really know a whole lot about it.

He just kind of wanted to see Freud just the same way like, you know, you would probably want to go see Justin Bieber or I would want to go see, you know, Lady Gaga.

So Alport shows up in Vienna, goes to Freud's office.