A Brief Description

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the father of psychoanalysis. He gave us defense mechanisms, dream analysis, psychosexual stages of development, the Oedipus complex, and the id, ego and superego. Since Freud's approach was the first modern theory of personality, psychoanalysis is sometimes called the First Force of psychology (behaviorism is the 2nd and humanism is the 3rd).