The 10 most important books by Sigmund Freud

We review the ten most influential works of the father of psychoanalysis.

Sigmund Freud is as loved as he is hated, but there's no there is no doubt that his theoretical legacy has left its mark on our culture and society.. 

Although his ideas have become completely outdated in terms of his explanations of how mental processes work, both our way of thinking and our way of creating culture have, in part, his imprint.

Sigmund Freud's most important and influential books

That is why, even decades after his death, the work of the father of psychoanalysis is still of general interest.

Below you can see a small list of the most important and influential books of Sigmund Freud. you can see a small list of Freud's most important books, so that you can go deeper into his work.so that you can delve deeper into his ideas and evaluate them critically. The order in which they are listed is chronological, according to their year of publication.

1. Studies on Hysteria (1895)

This book, written by Sigmund Freud and his mentor Josef Breuer, is the seed of the psychodynamic theory that Freud would create during the years following the publication of these writings. It is also the set of texts in which the ideas about the unconscious that would later give rise to the great theories of psychoanalysis are intuited, although in this case the subject matter is more closely related to psychiatry and clinical psychology of the late nineteenth century.

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2. The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)

For many people, this is the book that gave birth to psychoanalysis.. In this work Freud develops the idea that dreams could be the realm in which unconscious thoughts emerge to consciousness disguised through messages transmitted in a symbolic way. Thus, dreams would be expressions of repressed desires that take advantage of the opportunity to meet the conscious mind when we sleep.

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3. Psychopathology of everyday life (1901)

The theory created by Sigmund Freud not only deals with the causes of the deals with the causes of the symptoms of serious mental pathologies.. It also tries to explain the fundamental psychological mechanisms behind the actions of human beings in general.

This is one of the books written by Freud in which the psychoanalyst explains the way in which, in his opinion, the functioning of our unconscious gives rise to the appearance of small inconsistencies in our way of behaving: lapses, confusing words when expressing ourselves and, in general, what Freud called failed acts. He also explains the possible flaws in the functioning of the human psyche that from his perspective could be behind these phenomena.

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4. Three Essays on Sexual Theory (1905)

Sexuality had a very important role in Freudian theory.. In fact, some of his students distanced themselves from him, among other things, because of the emphasis with which the father of psychoanalysis defended the centrality of the sexual as part of the unconscious and drive machinery that makes us behave as we do.

This is one of Freud's most important books because it contains the ideas that shape the Freudian theory of psychosexual development.

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5. Totem and Taboo (1913)

Unlike the rest of Freud's books, this selection of essays goes beyond the clinical realm to delve into those phenomena historically rooted in the social and cultural. The conclusions to be found within the pages of this work have implications have implications for topics such as religion, rituals and even archeology..

The content of this work is more philosophical and anthropological than the rest of Freud's books.

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6. Introduction to Narcissism (1914)

The content of this book is a revision of Freud's theory of drives. In Introduction of NarcissismFreud explains that narcissism is part of the normal functioning of the psyche and that its seed is present from the earliest stages of psychosexual development.

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7. Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1917)

Who better to introduce us to psychoanalysis than the person who created it?

Within the pages of this work, Sigmund Freud explains the main foundations of psychoanalytic theory and points out the fundamental pillars on which the psychoanalyst's work must be based. It is a good option to get a general idea of what Freud understood by neurosis, unconscious, dreams, repression, etc.

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8. Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920)

This is the first book by Freud in which a distinction appears between the life drives (Eros) and (Eros) and the death drives (Tanathos). (Tanathos). In addition, here is portrayed in great detail the theory of the instincts of Sigmund Freud.

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9. The Ego and the It (1923)

The theory of the ego-structures is of total relevance in Freud's work, and in this book its foundations are well explained. The difference between the Ego, the Ego and the Overself, as well as the principles by which they are governed and their role in the human psyche, are analyzed in depth.

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10. The Malaise in Culture (1930)

Since Sigmund Freud dealt a lot with the tensions between the individual drives of each person and the conflict they enter into when they clash with the norms of behavior, it is not surprising that he devoted a great deal of time to this book, it is not surprising that he devoted one of his books to examining the fit between the individual and culture. The basic idea embodied in the pages of this essay is that, as the interests of civilization and the primal desires of individuals are in constant tension, this generates a sense of chronic discomfort.

This is one of Freud's most important books from the perspective of social psychology.

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