Dr. Maria T. Lymberis, MD

Clinical & Forensic Psychiatry in Los Angeles, California

A Brief History of Psychiatry

This is an arbitrary bird’s eye view that omits the many valuable but too numerous contributors that have made the present day science and practice of psychiatry possible.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

1899

Sigmund Freud published "The Interpretation of Dreams", establishing the discipline of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy with a systematic structure of theories concerning the relation of conscious and unconscious psychological processes. He is one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. His work and theories helped shape modern views of childhood, personality, memory, sexuality, conflict and therapy. Other major thinkers have contributed work that grew out of Freud's legacy, some in opposition to his ideas.