A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis

by Sigmund Freud

A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis is the English version of the lectures Sigmund Freud gave to a mixed audience at the University of Vienna during the winters of 1915 to 1917, published in German in 1917. They are the clearest statement of his theory he ever wrote for the general reader. The first part treats the psychology of errors, the slips of the tongue and pen that reveal unconscious intentions; the second analyzes dreams as wish fulfillments distorted by censorship; the third gives the general theory of the neuroses, with the libido, infantile sexuality, the Oedipus complex, repression, transference and the technique of treatment. G. Stanley Hall, who had brought Freud to America in 1909, introduces this translation, published in 1920. It is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, with the first chapter free.