ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses Sigmund Freud's life before the discovery of psychoanalysis, spanning the period from 1856, the year of his birth, to 1900, the date of the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams. It focuses on the presentation of the key notions of psychoanalysis, handed down by Freud to posterity. The book then examines Freud's life from 1900 to 1939. It also adopts a clinical perspective to emphasise that his thought, far from being pure speculation, is closely linked with the daily practice of the psychoanalytic treatment that it elucidates. Psychoanalysts can understand Freud from different points of view, depending on the training they have received or the current of psychoanalytic thought to which they adhere. Each one has the tendency to prioritise aspects or periods of Freud's life and to conceal others.
