Notable People · 1856–1939
Born: 6 May 1856 · Died: 23 September 1939 · Age: 83
Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis and introduced ideas such as the unconscious, repression and the interpretation of dreams
Did you know?He was a lifelong smoker who continued the habit despite undergoing dozens of surgeries for jaw cancer.
Freud changed how people think about themselves, even those who have never read a word he wrote. Ideas such as the unconscious mind, repression, the ego and Freudian slips have become part of ordinary conversation. He developed the 'talking cure', in which patients speak freely about their thoughts and dreams, laying the foundations of modern psychotherapy. Many of his specific theories have been challenged or rejected by later scientists. Yet his central insight, that hidden feelings can shape our behaviour, transformed psychology, literature and art.
Sigmund Freud (born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies arising from conflicts in the psyche through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of…
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Profile
Austrian neurologist, born 1856
Sigmund Freud was born in Příbor on 6 May 1856.
He founded psychoanalysis.
He published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899.
He fled the Nazis to London in 1938.
Career highlights
Did you know?His London home is now the Freud Museum.
Questions people ask
1861–1941Photo: Generalstabens litografiska anstalt · Public domain
b. 1953Photo: Pavel Golovkin · CC BY 4.0
1758–1794Photo: Unidentified painter · CC0
b. 1961Photo: Raph_PH · CC BY 4.0
1915–1985Photo: Carl Van Vechten · Public domain
b. 1983Photo: Palácio do Planalto from Brasilia, Brasil · CC BY 2.0
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1889–1945Photo: Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
1564–1616Photo: Attributed to John Taylor · Public domain
1818–1883Photo: John Jabez Edwin Mayall · Public domain
1926–2022Photo: Donald McKague · Public domain
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Last reviewed: October 2026