ABSTRACT
To many members of the general public, Sigmund Freud is the most famous psychologist of all time. Yet, Freud was not a psychologist, and some academic psychologists have a very low opinion of Freud. This chapter examines the concepts that underpin psychoanalysis and describes their origins and relevance. Freud’s significance in the history of science is that he initiated a paradigm shift. It was a paradigm shift within the discipline of medicine, not within psychology. To understand what this paradigm shift was and why it was so significant, it is necessary to know about the medical paradigm that Freud rejected. When Freud referred to his patients, he gave them pseudonyms to protect their identity. Later historians have been able to track down who these people really were and find out more about their history – and whether Freud really cured them. The chapter presents a selection of case studies published at different times in Freud’s career.
