Dictionary entry

Psychanalysis

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Psy′cha‐nal″y‐sis (?), n. [Psycho- + analysis.] A method or process of psychotherapeutic analysis based on the work of Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856- —) of Vienna. The method rests upon the theory that hysteria is characteristically due to repression of desires consciously rejected but subconsciously persistent; it consists in a close analysis of the patient's mental history, stress being laid upon the dream life, and of treatment by means of suggestion. — Psy‐chan′a‐lyt″ic (#), a. — Psy′cha‐nal″y‐sist (#), n.