Sigmund Freud

1856 – 1939

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, whose theories shaped 20th-century psychiatry, anthropology, literature, and popular conceptions of the mind. Many of his core clinical claims—including his theories of female sexuality, his interpretation of women's accounts of childhood sexual abuse, and his foundational case studies—have been substantially revised or repudiated by subsequent psychiatric research. He was an early enthusiast of cocaine as a therapeutic agent, prescribing it widely to his patients before its addictive properties became publicly understood, in the same career-defining work in which his lasting psychoanalytic reputation began.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM