There exists, of course, few more famous figures in the field of psychology than Sigmund Freud. As the founding father of psychoanalysis, or the clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst, his impact on the field of psychology cannot be overstated. Based on a series of lectures given at the University of Vienna in 1915, “Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis” builds upon Freud’s earlier work “Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis” to provide a comprehensive overview of the pioneer’s work in the field of psychoanalysis. G. Stanley Hall describes in his preface that “these twenty-eight lectures to laymen are elementary and almost conversational. Freud sets forth with a frankness almost startling the difficulties and limitations of psychoanalysis, and also describes its main methods and results as only a master and originator of a new school of thought can do. These discourses are at the same time simple and almost confidential, and they trace and sum up the results of thirty years of devoted and painstaking research.” “Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis” is a must read for those interested in the field of psychology and Freud’s contribution to it.
