“Word therapy” has thrived throughout the 20th century up to the present day and has deeply influenced Western medicine and culture. But how did psychoanalysis come into being? Which schools of thought have characterized its development? This book sheds light on the origins and history of psychoanalytic thought from its founding up to the contemporary age. Beginning with Freud’s seminal contributions, the author leads the reader along a chronological and theoretical path featuring important thinkers (including Jung, Adler, Anna Freud and, more recently, Kohut, Bion, Lichtenberg, Ferrari) and helps one understand the foundations and principles that distinguish psychoanalysis from other forms of psychotherapy. The text also describes renowned clinical cases and the lives of the main personalities of a movement that has had a major impact not only on theory and clinical practice, but on popular culture as well. Since its inception with “The Interpretation of Dreams” in 1901, psychoanalysis continues to fascinate us and improve our well-being.

Antonio Ciocca is a physician, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst who teaches Clinical Psychology at the Sacred Heart Catholic University in Milan.