The Future of an Illusion

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst whose influential writings helped to found the discipline of psychoanalysis at the turn of the 20th century. As a practicing neurologist in the late 19th century in Vienna, Freud developed an innovative technique for treating his mentally ill patients, often known as talk therapy or free association. The method focused on letting the patient voice whatever came into his or her mind during sessions, the doctor would then analyze what the patient had said to better understand the origins of the patient’s mental illness.

Through his clinical work, Freud developed a theory of the unconscious and believed that most mental illnesses arose from traumatic childhood memories or experiences. Freud believed the psyche was driven by certain key instinctual urges or drives, which individuals would try and repress as they developed into adulthood. The struggle to repress these drives would often manifest in adults as neuroses—obsessive behaviors or mental disorders that prevented the adult from living a fulfilling life. Freud developed these theories in a number of books throughout his career, including The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), The Ego and the Id (1923), and