A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud’s controversial ideas have penetrated Western culture more deeply than those of any other psychologist. The ‘Freudian slip’, the ‘Oedipus complex’, ‘childhood sexuality’, ‘libido’, ‘narcissism’ ‘penis envy’, the ‘castration complex’, the ‘id’, the ‘ego’ and the ‘superego’, ‘denial’, ‘repression’, ‘identification’, ‘projection’, ‘acting out’, the ‘pleasure principle’, the ‘reality principle’, ‘defence-mechanism’ – are all taken for granted in our everyday vocabulary. Psychoanalysis was never just a method of treatment, rather a vision of the human condition which has continued to fascinate and provoke long after the death of its originator. Its central hypothesis, that we live in conflict with ourselves and seek to resolve matters by turning away from reality, did not emerge from experimental science but from self-examination and the unique opportunities for observation presented by the psychoanalytic technique – in particular, from the confessions produced by ‘free-association’ in Freud’s consulting room. Written during the turmoil of the First World War, A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis was distilled from a series of lectures given at Vienna University, but had to wait for the war to end before being made available to the English speaking world.

Sigmund Freud’s controversial ideas have penetrated Western culture more deeply than those of any other psychologist. The ‘Freudian slip’, the ‘Oedipus complex’, ‘childhood sexuality’, ‘libido’, ‘narcissism’ ‘penis envy’, the ‘castration complex’, the ‘id’, the ‘ego’ and the ‘superego’, ‘denial’, ‘repression’, ‘identification’, ‘projection’, ‘acting out’, the ‘pleasure principle’, the ‘reality principle’, ‘defence-mechanism’ – are all taken for granted in our everyday vocabulary. Psychoanalysis was never just a method of treatment, rather a vision of the human condition which has continued to fascinate and provoke long after the death of its originator. Its central hypothesis, that we live in conflict with ourselves and seek to resolve matters by turning away from reality, did not emerge from experimental science but from self-examination and the unique opportunities for observation presented by the psychoanalytic technique – in particular, from the confessions produced by ‘free-association’ in Freud’s consulting room. Written during the turmoil of the First World War, A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis was distilled from a series of lectures given at Vienna University, but had to wait for the war to end before being made available to the English speaking world.

A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud Translated by G. Stanley Hall These twenty-eight lectures to laymen are elementary and almost conversational. Freud sets forth with a frankness almost startling the difficulties and limitations of psychoanalysis, and also describes its main methods and results as only a master and originator of a new school of thought can do. These discourses are at the same time simple and almost confidential, and they trace and sum up the results of thirty years of devoted and painstaking research. While they are not at all controversial, we incidentally see in a clearer light the distinctions between the master and some of his distinguished pupils. Part 1 -- The Psychology of Errors First Lecture Introduction Second Lecture The Psychology of Errors Third Lecture The Psychology of Errors -- ( Continued ) Fourth Lecture The Psychology of Errors -- ( Conclusion ) Part 2 -- The Dream Fifth Lecture -- Difficulties and Preliminary Approach Sixth Lecture -- Hypothesis and Technique of Interpretation Seventh Lecture -- Manifest Dream Content and Latent Dream Thought Eighth Lecture -- Dreams of Childhood Ninth Lecture -- The Dream Censor Tenth Lecture -- Symbolism in the Dream Eleventh Lecture -- The Dream-Work Twelfth Lecture -- Analysis of Sample Dreams Thirteenth Lecture -- Archaic Remnants and Infantilism in the Dream Fourteenth Lecture -- Wish Fulfillment Fifteenth Lecture -- Doubtful Points and Criticism Part 3 -- General Theory of the Neuroses Sixteenth Lecture -- Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry Seventeenth Lecture -- The Meaning of the Symptoms Eighteenth Lecture -- Traumatic Fixation -- The Unconscious Nineteenth Lecture -- Resistance and Suppression Twentieth Lecture -- The Sexual Life of Man Twenty-First Lecture -- Development of the Libido and Sexual Organizations Twenty-Second Lecture -- Theories of Development and Regression -- Etiology Twenty-Third Lecture -- The Development of the Symptoms Twenty-Fourth Lecture -- Ordinary Nervousness Twenty-Fifth Lecture -- Fear and Anxiety Twenty-Sixth Lecture -- The Libido Theory and Narcism Twenty-Seventh Lecture -- Transference Twenty-Eighth Lecture -- Analytical Therapy

A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud Translated by G. Stanley Hall These twenty-eight lectures to laymen are elementary and almost conversational. Freud sets forth with a frankness almost startling the difficulties and limitations of psychoanalysis, and also describes its main methods and results as only a master and originator of a new school of thought can do. These discourses are at the same time simple and almost confidential, and they trace and sum up the results of thirty years of devoted and painstaking research. While they are not at all controversial, we incidentally see in a clearer light the distinctions between the master and some of his distinguished pupils. Part 1 -- The Psychology of Errors First Lecture Introduction Second Lecture The Psychology of Errors Third Lecture The Psychology of Errors -- ( Continued ) Fourth Lecture The Psychology of Errors -- ( Conclusion ) Part 2 -- The Dream Fifth Lecture -- Difficulties and Preliminary Approach Sixth Lecture -- Hypothesis and Technique of Interpretation Seventh Lecture -- Manifest Dream Content and Latent Dream Thought Eighth Lecture -- Dreams of Childhood Ninth Lecture -- The Dream Censor Tenth Lecture -- Symbolism in the Dream Eleventh Lecture -- The Dream-Work Twelfth Lecture -- Analysis of Sample Dreams Thirteenth Lecture -- Archaic Remnants and Infantilism in the Dream Fourteenth Lecture -- Wish Fulfillment Fifteenth Lecture -- Doubtful Points and Criticism Part 3 -- General Theory of the Neuroses Sixteenth Lecture -- Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry Seventeenth Lecture -- The Meaning of the Symptoms Eighteenth Lecture -- Traumatic Fixation -- The Unconscious Nineteenth Lecture -- Resistance and Suppression Twentieth Lecture -- The Sexual Life of Man Twenty-First Lecture -- Development of the Libido and Sexual Organizations Twenty-Second Lecture -- Theories of Development and Regression -- Etiology Twenty-Third Lecture -- The Development of the Symptoms Twenty-Fourth Lecture -- Ordinary Nervousness Twenty-Fifth Lecture -- Fear and Anxiety Twenty-Sixth Lecture -- The Libido Theory and Narcism Twenty-Seventh Lecture -- Transference Twenty-Eighth Lecture -- Analytical Therapy