Psychoanalysis
Freud, Psychodynamic Therapy

It really all did begin with Freud. Psychoanalysis is both a theory of how the mind works and a treatment, and both have yielded to more research-driven approaches. Belief in the primacy of the unconscious, of fantasy, of sexual desires (libido, penis envy, Oedipal complex), and of dreams as the royal road to the unconscious have all been dethroned. But Freud also identified such basic mental maneuvers as transference, projection, and defensiveness and how they distort our functioning. As a treatment based on extended self-exploration, psychoanalysis has evolved beyond the silent-shrink stereotype.

Psychoanalysis is today thriving in one scientific arena—neuropsychoanalysis—which aims to wed the insights of Freudian psychology and its emphasis on subjective experience with neuroscience findings about brain processes.