Freud and his colleague, Breuer, observed that patients usually cured themselves of symptoms of hysteria by talking. Under hypnosis, he discovered that they would reveal an intensely upsetting event or a highly emotional fantasy. If in the course of relating this material, was accompanied by an outburst of emotion, the patient would be relieved of his symptoms of hysteria. Freud saw that the conflict arose because of the patient's desires and his moral scruples. These forbidden impulses do not go away, but they work on the patient unconsciously, and this leads to hysteria.

For personal reasons, Breur withdrew from the investigations. Freud then continued working independently, and discovered that upsetting experiences involved not only hysteria, but also compulsion neurosis of a sexual nature during childhood. Subsequently, he believed dreaming to be an extension or continuation of daydreaming, and that slips of the tongue, forgetting of proper names (etc) reveal a person's essential nature.

In 1923, Freud then reformulated his theories, and sub-divided them into three major categories: ego, id and superego.

Freud's Followers

After World War I, psychoanalysis revolutionized the field of psychaitry and psychotherapy, and was also recognised as adding a new prospective on the nature of man and his motivations. Several of Freud's early students, (notably Alfred Adler and Carl Jung) used psychoanalysis as an achor for developing their own psychology. Jung had major differences with Freu concerning the unconscious nature of an individual's drive.

Adler felt that Freud's theory underestimated the impact of social and political pressure on one's drive. But Otto Rank was impressed by psycho-analtic discoveries and expanded on Freud's theory.

In the 1930's, the centre for psychoanalysis was relocated to the United States. Freud's followeres then laid the foundations for psychoanalysis, and it gradually became a basis for general psychology. Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud's daughter, analyzed the ways in which one can be affected by observing children and their development.

Psychoanalytic investigations are still going on till today, and they have discovered many significant roles in causing personality disorders in later life. Psychoanalysis has helped Man in many ways, and it guides us so that our future generations would grow to be free from mental disorders.