ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the more experimentally focused areas of scientific psychology to explore the school of psychoanalysis. It begins with an overview of the history of attitudes and ideas concerning psychopathology including pre-Hippocratic mystical and surgical approaches to the treatment of pathological behavior. The chapter also discusses the history of psychopathology then progresses through the Middle Ages where we make note of the first mental asylums. It describes the theories and contributions of Sigmund Freud to the development of psychoanalysis. The chapter also describes the roles of Anna Freud and Ernest Jones in influencing the developmental course of psychoanalysis. Given the focus on abnormal human behavior, psychoanalysis was particularly influenced by earlier ideas about the nature of psychopathology. Freud’s tight control over the development of psychoanalysis during his lifetime led to a schism in the school’s development. Freud’s followers in general took one of two paths, strict adherence or strong divergence from a purely Freudian psychoanalysis.
