Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Also known as Introduction to Psychoanalysis, A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse, Einführung in die Psychoanalyse
Freud's own 28-lecture overview of slips, dreams and neuroses for a general audience
At a glance
What it argues
Start from the ordinary, An honest summary, Some new material
See all 3Key ideas
Errors have meaning (lectures 2–4), Manifest and latent dream (lectures 5–15), Symptoms have a sense (lectures 16–24) …
See all 4Examples from the book
The meeting declared closed, "Siemens and Halski"
See all 2Criticism and limits
Later revised, Reach too far, Freud's own view
See all 3Read next
The Interpretation of Dreams, Transference, The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
See all 3Connections
Sigmund Freud, Psychodynamic psychotherapy and 2 others
See all 4
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Twenty-eight lectures Freud gave in 1915–17, set out for laypeople.
- He starts with slips of the tongue, moves to dreams, and only then reaches the neuroses, so each idea rests on everyday experience.
- He argues with his audience, raising and answering their objections.
- The last part covers symptoms, resistance, the libido, anxiety, transference and how analytic therapy works.
- Some positions were later revised, and in 1932 he added seven New Introductory Lectures.
Why it matters
- The best single book to start Freud with: his whole system in his own plain, conversational words, ending in what therapy actually does.
Key facts
- Author
- Sigmund Freud1
- Given
- 1915–1917, as lectures1
- Published
- 1916–1917; in English 19201
- Original title
- Einführung in die Psychoanalyse1
- Structure
- 28 lectures in three parts: errors, dreams, general theory of the neuroses2
- 1920 English edition
- A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, preface by G. Stanley Hall (Horace Liveright, New York)2
- Sequel
- New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1932), lectures 29–35, never read aloud1
- Audience
- Laypeople; Hall called the lectures "elementary and almost conversational"1
- Influence
- Became the most popular and widely translated of his works1
What it argues
-
Start from the ordinary1
Slips first, dreams second, neuroses last, so the ideas look grounded in common-sense experience.
-
An honest summary1
Hall: Freud sets out the difficulties and limits of psychoanalysis with a frankness almost startling.
-
Some new material1
Beyond stock-taking, it adds new thinking on symbolism and primal fantasies.
Key ideas
-
Errors have meaning (lectures 2–4)2
The psychology of slips, retold from The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
-
Manifest and latent dream (lectures 5–15)2
Dream censorship, symbolism, dream-work and wish fulfilment.
-
Symptoms have a sense (lectures 16–24)2
Meaning of symptoms, traumatic fixation, resistance, libido development and regression.
-
Transference and therapy (lectures 27–28)2
How feelings toward the analyst become the engine and the obstacle of treatment.
Examples from the book
Criticism and limits
-
Later revised1
Freud altered some positions in later work, and added the 1932 New Introductory Lectures to update them.
-
Reach too far1
Karl Jaspers turned against psychoanalysis after its claim here to explain mythology and culture as well as neurosis.
-
Freud's own view1
Privately he called it "coarse work, intended for the multitude".
Read next
-
The full version of the dream lectures.
-
The idea from the last lectures that most of therapy still uses.
-
The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
What the evidence says about therapy descended from these lectures.
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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