The term psychoanalysis pertains to the theory, therapy, and method of inquiry created by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). The origin of psychoanalysis is often traced to Freud's Interpretation of Dreams (1900), but some of its key elements can be found in his earlier writings, especially his Studies on Hysteria (1895), cowritten with Josef Breuer.

Freudian Theory

"Freudian theory" is not a single theory but a set of smaller ones, at least some of which are familiar to most philosophers and educated people. One of the most significant and best known of these is Freud's theory of dreams.

Freud theorized that all dreams are fulfillments of repressed infantile wishes. During sleep, these repressed wishes can enter into the dreamer's consciousness, but only in a disguised form, after the dream censor has altered their appearance. Freud calls what survives the dream censorship the "manifest content"; what exists prior to the censorship is the dream's...