Freud loved cigars. He reportedly smoked about 20 cigars a day! Despite this habit contributing to his health issues (he developed jaw cancer), Freud refused to quit, famously saying, "Cigars are indispensable to me." It seems he wasn’t ready to analyze that particular habit!

Freud had an unexpected research focus early in his career — eel genitalia! In the 1870s, he worked in Trieste, Italy, trying to identify the reproductive organs of male eels, which, at the time, was a mystery. After dissecting hundreds of eels and finding nothing, Freud decided psychoanalysis might be a better fit

Despite being a man who dove into the deepest corners of the human mind, Freud had some personal anxieties of his own. He was reportedly terrified of fainting in public, a fear so strong that he would avoid certain social situations. Freud would probably have called it "public performance anxiety."

Freud had an interesting hobby outside of psychology — he was an avid collector of ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts. His office was filled with statuettes, vases, and antiquities. Freud believed these ancient pieces symbolized the human mind's timeless and mysterious nature, and they probably provided him with inspiration for his work on the unconscious!

Freud was once a passionate advocate for cocaine. In the 1880s, he praised the drug for its stimulant effects, and he even prescribed it to his friends and family! Freud believed cocaine could treat various ailments, including depression, and used it himself to treat his migraines. Later, as the dangers of the drug became more apparent, Freud backed off from his initial enthusiasm.

Freud was his own patient — he famously practiced self-analysis to develop his groundbreaking theories. By examining his dreams, memories, and thoughts, Freud came to understand his own mind and unconscious desires. His monumental work The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) was largely based on this self-exploration.

Freud had a strange phobia of the number 62. He was so convinced that something terrible would happen if he stayed in a hotel room numbered 62 that he would go out of his way to avoid those rooms while traveling. What would Freud say about his own numerophobia?

Freud had a soft spot for dogs, especially his beloved chow chow named Jofi. He even brought Jofi to therapy sessions with his patients, believing the dog’s calm demeanor helped put them at ease. Freud used Jofi’s behavior as a barometer of his patients' mental states — if the dog got restless, Freud believed the patient was becoming anxious.

Freud visited the United States only once, in 1909, and he hated it. Despite receiving a warm welcome and giving lectures at Clark University, Freud disliked the country’s culture and food. He referred to America as "a gigantic mistake" and refused to return for the rest of his life!

Freud’s famous theory of the Oedipus Complex, which suggests that young boys have unconscious desires for their mothers and feelings of rivalry with their fathers, wasn’t just theoretical. Freud reportedly experienced these feelings himself, which he discovered through his self-analysis, making the theory as personal as it was scientific.

These unusual and quirky facts show that Freud, despite being a pioneering thinker, had his share of eccentricities. From his love of cigars to his fear of the number 62, Freud’s life was as complex and layered as the human psyche he spent his life exploring!