Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques[1] related to the

study of the unconscious mind,[2] which together form a method of treatment for
mental-health disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by A
ustrian neurologist Sigmund Freud and stemmed partly from the clinical work of J
osef Breuer and others.
Freud first used the term psychoanalysis (in French) in 1896. Die Traumdeutung (
The Interpretation of Dreams), which Freud saw as his "most significant work", a
ppeared in November 1899.[3] Psychoanalysis was later developed in different dir
ections, mostly by students of Freud such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung,[
a] and by neo-Freudians such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Harry Stack Sulliv
an.[4] Freud retained the term psychoanalysis for his own school of thought.[5]
The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include:
a person's development is determined by often forgotten events in early childhoo
d, rather than by inherited traits alone;
human behaviour and cognition is largely determined by irrational drives that ar
e rooted in the unconscious;
attempts to bring those drives into awareness triggers resistance in the form of
defense mechanisms, particularly repression;
conflicts between conscious and unconscious material can result in mental distur
bances such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety and depression;
unconscious material can be found in dreams and unintentional acts, including ma
nnerisms and slips of the tongue;
liberation from the effects of the unconscious is achieved by bringing this mate
rial into the conscious mind through therapeutic intervention;
the "centerpiece of the psychoanalytic process" is the transference, whereby pat
ients relive their infantile conflicts by projecting onto the analyst feelings o
f love, dependence and anger.[6]
During psychoanalytic sessions, which typically last 50 minutes and ideally take
place 4 5 times a week,[7] the patient (the "analysand") may lie on a couch, with
the analyst often sitting just behind and out of sight. The patient expresses h
is or her thoughts, including free associations, fantasies and dreams, from whic
h the analyst infers the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms an
d character problems. Through the analysis of these conflicts, which includes in
terpreting the transference and countertransference (the analyst's feelings for
the patient), the analyst confronts the patient's pathological defenses to help
the patient gain insight.
Psychoanalysis is a controversial discipline and its validity as a science is co
ntested. Nonetheless, it remains a strong influence within psychiatry, more so i
n some quarters than others.[b][c] Psychoanalytic concepts are also widely used
outside the therapeutic arena, in areas such as psychoanalytic literary criticis
m, as well as in the analysis and deconstruction of film, fairy tales and other
cultural phenomena.