Genius of the Modern World: Freud

Presenter Bettany Hughes sets out to understand and analyze Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis.

Freud’s theories and work paved the way for psychoanalysis as a major school of thought and transformed psychology as we know it.

He was a pioneer in the study of the human mind, Freud’s psychoanalytic methods addressed emotional issues, seldom even discussed in the 19th century.

Talking to his patients inspired his radical understanding of the unconscious mind, as a repository of hidden repressed emotions and irrational primal desires.

Freud’s influence surrounds us. In our vocabulary – repression, penis envy, the Freudian slip – and in the freedom we take for granted, to talk openly about our deepest feelings and insecurities.