Psychoanalysis (from Greek: ψυχή, psykhḗ, 'soul' + ἀνάλυσις, análysis, 'investigate') is a set of theories

and therapeutic techniques[i] used to study the unconscious mind,[ii] which together form a method of
treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Austrian neurologist
Sigmund Freud, who retained the term psychoanalysis for his own school of thought.[1] Freud's work
stems partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Psychoanalysis was later developed in
different directions, mostly by students of Freud, such as Alfred Adler and his collaborator, Carl Gustav
Jung,[iii] as well as by neo-Freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack
Sullivan.[2]

Psychoanalysis has been known to be a controversial discipline, and its validity as a science is very
contested. Nonetheless, it retains a relatively salient influence within psychiatry, albeit more so in some
quarters than others.[iv][v] Psychoanalytic concepts are also widely used outside the therapeutic arena,
in areas such as psychoanalytic literary criticism, as well as in the analysis of film, fairy tales,
philosophical perspectives as Freudo-Marxism and other cultural phenomena.

The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include:[3]

A person's development is determined by often forgotten events in early childhood, rather than by
inherited traits alone.

Human behaviour and cognition are largely determined by instinctual drives that are rooted in the
unconscious.

Attempts to bring such drives into awareness triggers resistance in the form of defense mechanisms,
particularly repression.

Conflicts between conscious and unconscious material can result in mental disturbances, such as
neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, and depression.

Unconscious material can be found in dreams and unintentional acts, including mannerisms and slips of
the tongue.

Liberation from the effects of the unconscious is achieved by bringing this material into the conscious
mind through therapeutic intervention.

The "centerpiece of the psychoanalytic process" is the transference, whereby patients relive their
infantile conflicts by projecting onto the analyst feelings of love, dependence and anger.[4]