Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis, the most influential psychological theorist of 20th-century. Freud's theories, including the concept of the Oedipus complex, have had an enormous influence on art, literature, and social thinking. His fundamental idea was that all humans are endowed with an unconscious in which potent sexual and aggressive drives, and defenses against them, struggle for supremacy. Freud once stated: "The only unnatural sexual behavior is none at all." It is often asserted that Freud "discovered" the unconscious mind. However, the idea is found in the work of many thinkers and authors from the times of Homer.

"The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind." (in The Interpretation of Dreams, 1900)

Sigmund Freud was born of Jewish parentage in Freiburg, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic), the first of seven children. His mother Amalia Nathansohn was twenty years younger than his father, the wool merchant Jakob Freud; Amalia was his third wife. When his business failed, the family moved in 1860 to Vienna, where discriminating laws against the Jews had been canceled during 1850s and 1860s. Jacob was a gentle and loving father, but young Sigmund resented his weakness and mediocrity; he never managed to get back on his feet financially. Freud likened him to Charles Dickens' Mr. Micawber, an impratical optimist, in David Copperfield.

When he was two and a half years old, Freud's "libido toward matrem was awakened" by seeing his mother naked on a train journey. Moreover, Freud acquired a lifelong travel phobia. Freud studied medicine at the University of Vienna under Josef Breuer, a Viennese physician. Breuer had with some success treated patients by encouraging them to "talk out" their past under hypnosis. In 1895 they coauthored Studies in Hysteria. It was an account of the treatment of "Anna O.," a hysterical patient, whom Freud himself never treated.

From 1882 to 1886 Freud worked at the General Hospital, where he experimented with cocaine. Calling it a "magical substance" he noted how a small dose lifted him to the heights "in a wonderful fashion." Freud's monograph, Über Coca, came out in 1884. 

In 1885 Freud went to Paris to study under Jean Martin Charcot at the Salpetrière Hospital. There the hypnotic treatment of women, who suffered from a medical state called "hysteria," led Freud to take an interest in psychiatry. After returning to Vienna, Freud married Martha Bernays; they had six children. His private practice Freud opened in 1886. Their address from 1891 was Berggasse 19, where the family lived until 1938. Freud exhaustivelu psychoanalysed his youngest daughter Anna, but his sons were not allowed to study medicine, especially psychoanalysis was a forbidden subject for them.

Throughout his life, Freud suffered from depression and paranoia. On the recommendation of Wilhelm Fleiss, a Berlin nose and and throat physician and his most intimate friend in the 1890s, Freud attempted to treat his mood swings with cocaine. Fleiss's study The Relationship between the Nose and the Female Sexual Organ (1897) was dismissed by a contemporary critic as "disgusting gobbledygook." Freud considered his friend's theories bold and revolutionary and withdrew from the editorial board of the journal that had published the review. His addiction lasted about 12 years, to the death of his father.

By 1896 Freud had found the key to his own system, naming it psychoanalysis. The major innovation was that he had replaced hypnosis with "free association." In 1900 Freud published his first major work, The Interpretation of Dreams, which established the importance of psychoanalytical movement. One of Freud's most famous early failures happened in the same year. In October he began treating an 18-year-old woman, Ida Bauer, better known by the pseudonym Dora. After 11 weeks, she stopped treatment, leaving much of the analytic work undone.

In 1902 Freud was appointed Ausserordentlicher Professor, and in 1905 appeared Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. At the suggestion of a disciple, Freud founded in 1902 the Psychological Wednesday Society, later transformed into the Viennna Psychoanalytic Society. After the Third International Psychoanalytic Congress in Weimar in 1911, Freud met Lou Andreas-Salomé, the Russian intellectual. Beloved by Nietzsche, whom she rejected, she had been the traveling companion and lover of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Andreas-Salomé was still in her fifties youthful-appearing. When Freud first encountered her, he warned one of his younger followers that she was "a woman of dangerous intelligence" but that "all the tracks around her go into the Lion's den but none come out." For a brief period, Andreas-Salomé was Freud's closest woman pupil and she was allowed to attend regularly the internal Wednesday gatherings at Bergstrasse 19. "Frau Lou" was also close to Freud's daughter Anna (1895-1982). Andreas-Salomé never questioned Anna's adoration of her famous father. Later Anna Freud, who never married, became a major force in British psychology, spezializing in the application of psychoanalysis to children. her best known works include The Ego and the Mechanism of Defence (1936).

In 1909 Freud went with Carl Jung on a lecture tour in the United States and met, among others, the American philosopher and psychologist William James (see under his brother, the writer Henry James). Jung's close collaboration with Freud lasted until 1913. Jung had become increasingly critical of Freud's exclusively sexual definition of libido and incest. The publication of Jung's Symbols of Transformation (1912) led to a final break. Freud believed that Jung subconsciously wanted to kill him.

"I always recognized Freud's greatness and genius, but he was extremely headstrong. He came out of nowhere and the world was hostile towards him. He had to be obstinate to gain acceptance. Had he not been obstinate, his theory would have remained unknown... Once he said to me:we have to turn the theory of the unconscious into a dogma, to make it immovable. Why a dogma, I replied, since sooner or later truth will have to win out? Freud explained: We need a dam against the black tide of mud of occultism." (in C.G. Jung Speaking, ed. William McGuire, and R.F.C. Hull, 1978)

By the beginning of the 1920s, Freud's writing had given rise to several associates of psychoanalysis. However, Freud himself took part only halfheartedly in the polemics of the movement; he was nearly muted: a series of operations for mouth cancer, beginning in 1923, made him unable to perform in public, and moreover, he grew increasingly weary and disillusioned. He published Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921), The Future of an Illusion (1927), and Civilization and Its Discontents (1929), all dealing with large cultural issues.

In spite of the recognition of his work Freud was never awarded with the Nobel Prize, but in 1928 an attempt was made for his nomination. This was supported by Alfred Döblin, Jacob Wassermann, Bertrand Russell, A.S. Neill, Lytton Strachey, Julian Huxley, Knut Hamsun, Thomas Mann. Albert Einstein didn't join the campaign, although he had been in correspondence with Freud. Noteworthy, Freud's work was known in English in a relatively complete edition before it was in German. The earliest translator was Abraham Arden Brill; James Strachey's Standard Edition is considered at the same time awe-inspiring and somewhat flawed.

"Thomas Mann points out that Freud is deeply involved in the irrationalism of the beginning of the new century because of the nature of the material of his enquiry, the unconscious, passions, instincts and dreams. But Freud is really connected not only with this neo-romantic movement, in which the subterranean regions of the life of the mind are the central point of interest, but at the same time with the beginning and origins of the whole aspect of romantic thought which goes back to the pre-civilized and the pre-rational. There is still an abundant share of Rousseauism in the pleasure with which he describes the freedom of the uncivilized man of instinct." (Arnold Hauser in The Social History of Art, 1951)

After Hitler's seizure of power, psychoanalytic work came to an end in Germany, and Freud's books were burnt in Berlin. His views also were condemned in the USSR . At the request of the league of Nations, Freud collaborated with Albert Einstein in writing Why War? (1933) When Nazis invaded Austria, Freud was permitted to move to London after paying a large ransom. According to a story, German authorities made him sign a document stating that he had been treated with "respect and consideration." Freud wrote, "I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone." However, when the original document was later found, it contained no such comment.

Freud died of throat cancer three weeks after the outbreak of WW II in 1939. His death on September 23, 1939 was eased by euthanasia – Freud asked his physician to give him a lethal dose of morphine. His last book, Moses and Monotheism (1939), was completed in England. Freud dismissed Jung's concept of a "collective unconscious" and offered instead his own idea of "archaic inheritance." According to Freud, Moses was an Egyptian, who gave to the Jews the religion of monotheism, and was murdered in the wilderness. "The founding of the Mohammedan religion seems to me to be an abbreviated repetition of the Jewish one," Freud wrote, but Islam "lacked the profundity which the Jewish religion resulted from the murder of its founder."

Freud's theories have been questioned by many scholars. The knowledge of brain's electrical behavior have brought new views in the interpretation of dreams. Freud, along with Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955), revolutionarized modern Western thinking. But when Marx's thoughts have become unpopular after the fall of the Soviet Union, psychoanalysis has not experiences similar decline. Like "dialectical materialism," psychoanalytic theories cannot be adequately tested or falsified. The Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper argued that Freud's psychoanalytic theories have in fact more in common with primitive myth than with science – "they resembled astrology rather than astronomy." (Karl Popper in Conjectures and Refutations, 1963, pp. 44-45)

One of the most passionate discussions of Freud's life and work arose in 1984. A young analyst-in-training, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, claimed in his provocative book Suppression of the Seduction Theory that many of Freud's patients were assaulted sexually in their childhoods by adults, but Freud did not analyze the genuineness of the abuse. Anthony Storr, a psychiatrist and the author of The Art of Psychotherapy and The Essential Jung, noted in his review of the book that "anyone who is at all familiar with Freud's writings will know that, in the early days of psychoanalysis, Freud considered hysterical symptoms to be the consequence of traumatic experiences, and these traumatic experiences were invariably sexual in nature." (New York Times, February 12, 1984) However, after self-analysis and discovering his 'Oedipus complex', based on fantasy, not on reality, he concluded that although assaults took place in childhood, it could not generally be considered the cause of hysteria or other neuroses.

Glossary: Castration anxiety: a boy's unconscious fear of losing his penis; Ego: the minds mechanism for keeping in touch with reality, it refers the conflict between id and superego; Freudian slip: a seemingly meaningless slip of the tongue that reveals an unconscious thought; Id: the part of mind from which primal needs and drives emerge; Oedipus complex: children in their phallic phase (ages three to six) form an erotic attachment to the parent of the opposite sex, and concomitant hatred of the parent of the same sex; Penis envy: girls try to deal with their "inferiority", they wish they had penis; Repression: the keeping of unacceptable ideas from consciousness – i.e. in the "unconscious"; Super-Ego: the self-criticizing part of the mind out of which the conscience develops

For further reading: Sigmund Freud: Life and Work by E. Jones (1953-57); The Ability to Mourn: Eros and Civilization by Herbert Marcuse (1955); Freud: The Mind of the Moralist by Phillip Rieff (1959); Freud and Philosophy by Paul Ricoeur (1970); Psychoanalysis and Feminism by Juliet Mitchell (1974); Disillusionment and the Social Origins of Psychoanalysis by Peter Homans (1989); Freud and the Problem of God by Hans Kung (1990); The Cambridge Companion to Freud, ed. by Jerome Neu (1991); Freud and His Followers by Paul Roazen (1992, paperback); The Case of Sigmund Freud: Medicine and Identity at the Fin De Siecle by Sander L. Gilman (1993); Femininities, Masculinities, Sexualities: Freud and Beyond by Nancy J. Chodorow (1994); Drawing the Dream of the Wolves: Homosexuality, Interpretation, and Freud's 'Wolf Man' by Whitney Davis (1995, paperback); A Final Accounting: Philosophical and Empirical Issues in Freudian Psychology by Edward Erwin (1995); Back to Freud's Texts: Making Silent Documents Speak by Ilse Grubrich-Simitis (1996); Freud and the Passions, ed. by John O'Neill (1996, paperback); Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression by Jacques Derrida (1996); Dispatches from the Freud Wars: Psychoanalysis and Its Passions by John Forrester (1997); The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (1998, paperback); Freud: A Life for Our Time by Peter Gay (1998, paperback); Early Freud and Late Freud: Reading Anew Studies on Hysteria and Moses and Monotheism by Ilse Grubrich-Simitis (1998, paperback); Dr. Freud, a Life by Paul Ferris (1998); Freud: From Youthful Dream to Mid-Life Crisis by Peter M. Newton (1999); Analytic Freud: Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, ed. by Michael P. Levine (2000); Freud's 'Megalomania' by Adam Phillips (2000); An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine by Howard Markel (2011) - Note 1: Freud's favorite writers in 1907: Gottfried Keller, Conrad Fardinand Meyer, Anatole France, Émile Zola, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Macaulay, Dimitri Merezkovski, Eduard Douwes Dekker (Multatuli), Theodor Gomperz, Mark Twain. Freud also enjoyed Agatha Christie's and Dorothy Sayers's mystery novels in later years. Other favorites: Goethe, Schiller, Heinrich Heine, Wilhelm Busch, Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig. - Freud's theories were also largely mocked in literature. Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar presented an idea, where a young man is happily married with his mother, but finds out that she is not really his mother and commits suicide. James Thurber and E.B. White published Is Sex Necessary? or, Why You Feel the Way You Do (1929), where they caricaturized psychoanalytical terms. Note 2: Hogarth Press, Freud's publisher in England, was owned by Leonard and Virginia Woolf.

Selected works:

• 'Über Coca', 1884 (in Centralblatt für die ges. Therapie, pp. 289–314)
  - 'Coca' (tr. S. Pollak, in Saint Louis Medical and Surgical Journal , Vol. 47, Dec, 1884) / Cocaine Papers (edited and with an introd. by Robert Byck, 1974)
  - Kokaiinista (suom. Markus Lång, 2010)
• Zur Auffassung der Aphasien: Eine kritische Studie, 1891
  - On Aphasia: A Critical Study (tr. E. Stengel, 1953)
• Über den psychischen Mechanismus hysterischer Phänomene, 1893 (with Josef Bauer)
• Entwurf einer Psychologie, 1895 (with Josef Bauer)
• Studien über Hysterie, 1895
  - Studies in Hysteria (tr.  A. A. Brill, 1936) / 'Studies on Hysteria,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume II (ed. James Strachey, 1955) / Studies in Hysteria (translated by Nicola Luckhurst, 1955)
• Die infantile Cerebrallähmung, 1897
  - Infantile Cerebral Paralysis (translated by Lester A. Russin, 1968)
• Die Traumdeutung, 1900
  - The Interpretation of Dreams (tr. Abraham A. Brill, 1913) / The Interpretation of Dreams, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IV-V (ed. James Strachey, 1953)
  - Unien tulkinta (suom. Erkki Puranen, 1968)
• Über den Traum, 1901
  - On Dreams (tr. M.D. Eder, 1914) /'On Dreams', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume V (ed. James Starchey, 1953)
• Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens, 1901
  - 'The Psychopathology of Everyday Life,' in Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume VI (ed. James Strachey, 1960) / The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (tr. James Strachey, 1966)
  - Arkielämämme psykopatologiaa: unohtamisesta, virhesanonnoista, virheteoista, taikauskosta ja erehdyksistä (suom. Martti Takala ja Marjatta Santala, 1954)
• Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, 1905
  - Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory (tr. Abraham A. Brill, 1910) / Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (tr. James Strachey, 1949) / 'Three Essays on Sexuality,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume VII (ed. James Strachey, 1953)
• Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten, 1905
  - 'Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume VIII (ed. James Strachey, 1960)
  - Vitsi ja sen yhteys piilotajuntaan (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1983)
• Bruchstück einer Hysterie-Analyse, 1905
  - 'Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria', in The Standard Edition of the The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume VII (ed. James Strachey, 1953)
  - 'Erään hystreria-analyysin katkelma', teoksessa Tapauskertomukset (suom. Seppo Hyrkäs, 2006)
• Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, 1906-22 (5 vols.)
  - Collected Papers, 1924-25 (4 vols., 2nd ed. 1933, tr. Joan Riviere)
• Meine Ansichten über die Rolle der Sexualität in der Ätiologie der Neurosen, 1906
  - 'Notes upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume X (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
  - Seksuaaliteoria (suom. Erkki Puranen, 1971)
• Der Wahn und die Träume in W. Jensens 'Gradiva', 1907
  - Delusion of Dream in Wilhelm Jensen's "Gradiva" (tr. Helen M. Downey, 1917) / Delusion and Dream: An Interpretation in the Light of Psychoanalysis of "Gradiva", a Novel, a Novel by Wilhelm Jensen (tr. G. Stanley Hall, 1922) / 'Jensen's'Gradiva'', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IX (ed. James Strachey, 1959)
  - 'Harhakuvitelmia ja unia W. Jensenin Gradivassa', teoksessa Uni ja isänmurha: kuusi esseetä taiteesta (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1995)
• Die „kulturelle“ Sexualmoral und die moderne Nervosität, 1908
  - ''Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IX (ed. James Strachey, 1959)
• Analyse der Phobie eines fünfjährigen Knaben, 1909
  - 'Little Hans', in The Standard Edition of the The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume X (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
  - Viisivuotiaan pojan fobian analyysi (suom. Riitta Pentti, 1997) / 'Viisivuotiaan pojan fobian analyysi', teoksessa Tapauskertomukset (suom. Seppo Hyrkäs, 2006)
• Über Psychoanalyse, 1910
  - 'Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XI (ed. James Strachey, 1957)
• Eine Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo da Vinci, 1910
  - Leonardo da Vinci: Psychosexual Study of an Infantile Reminiscence (translated by A. A. Brill, 1922) / 'Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XI (ed. James Strachey, 1957) / Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood (translated by Alan Tyson, 1964)
  - 'Leonardo da Vincin lapsuudenmuisto', teoksessa Uni ja isänmurha: kuusi esseetä taiteesta (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1995)
• Psychoanalytische Bemerkungen über einen autobiographisch beschriebenen Fall von Paranoia (Dementia paranoides), 1911
  - The Schreber Case (translated by Andrew Webber, 2003) / 'The Case of Schreber,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XII (ed. James Strachey, 1958)
  - 'Psykoanalyyttisia huomioita omaelämäkerrallisesti kuvatusta paranoiatapauksesta (dementia paranoides)', teoksessa Tapauskertomukset (suom. Seppo Hyrkäs, 2006)
• Totem und Tabu, 1913
  - Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics (tr. Abraham A. Brill, 1918) / Totem and Taboo: Some Points of Agreement Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (tr. James Strachey, 1950) / 'Totem and Taboo', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIII (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
  - Toteemi ja tabu: eräitä yhtäläisyyksiä villien ja neuroottisten sielunelämässä (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1989)
• Das Motiv der Kästchenwahl, 1913
  - 'The Theme of the Three Caskets', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XII (ed. James Strachey, 1958)
  - 'Lippaanvalinnan teema', teoksessa Uni ja isänmurha: kuusi esseetä taiteesta (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1995)
• Zur Geschichte der psychoanalytischen Bewegung, 1914
  - 'On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (ed. James Strachey, 1957)
• Der Moses des Michelangelo, 1914
  - 'The Moses of Michelangelo', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIII (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
  - 'Michelangelon Mooses', teoksessa Uni ja isänmurha: kuusi esseetä taiteesta (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1995)
• Zur Einführung des Narzißmus, 1914
  - 'On Narcissism', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (ed. James Strachey, 1957)
  - Johdatus narsismiin ja muita esseitä (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1993)
• Zeitgemäßes über Krieg und Tod, 1915
  - Reflections on War and on Death (translation by A. A. Brill and Alfred B. Kuttner, 1918)
• Übersicht der Übertragungsneurosen, 1915 / 1985
  - A Phylogenetic Fantasy: Overview of the Transference Neuroses (tr. Axel Hoffer and Peter T. Hoffer, ed. Ilse Grubrich-Simitis, 1987)
• Trauer und Melancholie, 1916
  - 'Mourning and Melancholia', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (ed. James Strachey, 1957)
  - Murhe ja melankolia sekä muita kirjoituksia (suom. Markus Lång, 2005)
• Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse, 1916-17
  - A General Introduction to the Psychoanalysis (tr. Joan Riviere, 1920) / 'Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XV-XVI (tr. James Strachey, 1963) / The Complete Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (tr. and ed. by James Strachey, 1966)
  - Johdatus psykoanalyysiin (suom. Erkki Puranen, 1964)
• Eine Kindheitserinnerung aus "Dichtung und Wahrheit", 1917
  - 'A Childhood Recollection from Dichtung und Wahrheit', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
  - 'Lapsuudenmuisto teoksesta Tarua ja totta', teoksessa Uni ja isänmurha: kuusi esseetä taiteesta (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1995)
• Das Unheimliche, 1919 
  - 'The Uncanny', in Sigmund Freud, Collected Papers, Vol. 4 (tr. Alix Strachey, 1959)
• Jenseits des Lustprinzips, 1920
  - Beyond the Pleasure Principle (tr. C.J.M. Hubback, 1922; James Strachey, 1950) / 'Beyond the Pleasure Principle,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVIII (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
  - Johdatus narsismiin ja muita esseitä (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1993)
• Über die Psychogenese eines Falles von weiblicher Homosexualität, 1920
  - 'The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVIII (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
  - 'Erään naisen homoseksuaalisuuden psykogeneesistä', teoksessa Tapauskertomukset (suom. Seppo Hyrkäs, 2006)
• Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse, 1921
  - Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (tr. by James Strachey, 1951) / 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of Ego,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVIII (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
  - Joukkopsykologia ja egoanalyysi (suom. Markus Lång, 2010)
•  Psychoanalyse und Telepathie, 1921
  - Psychoanalysis and Telepathy (tr. George Devereux, 1953) / 'Psycho-Analysis and Telepathy', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVIII (ed. James Strachey, 1955)
• Das Ich und das Es, 1923
  - The Ego and the Id (translation by Joan Riviere, 1927) / 'The Ego and Id,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIX (ed. James Strachey, 1961)
  - Johdatus narsismiin ja muita esseitä (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1993)
• Gesammelte Schriften, 1924-1934 (12 vols., ed. Anna Freud) 
• Aus der Geschichte einer infantilen Neurose, 1924
  - 'From the History of an Infantile Neurosis'', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII (ed. James Strachey, 1955) / The Wolf-Man. With The Case of the Wolf-Man (ed. by Muriel Gardiner, 1971) / 'The Case of the Wolf-Man' (from the History of an Infantile Neurosis, with an introduction by Richard Wollheim, 1992) / The "Wolfman" and Other Cases (translated by Louise Adey Huish, 2003)
  - 'Erään lapsuudenneuroosin kehitys', teoksessa Tapauskertomukset (suom. Seppo Hyrkäs, 2006)
• Selbstdarstellung, 1925
  - An Autobiographical Study (authorized translation by James Strachey, 1935) / 'An Autobiographical Study', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XX (ed. James Strachey, 1959) - Omaelämäkerrallinen tutkielma (suom. Pulmu ja Tapio Nousiainen, 1962)
• Hemmung, Symptom und Angst, 1926
  - The Problem of Anxiety (translated by Henry Alden Bunker, 1936) / Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety (tr. Alix Strachey, 1936) / 'Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XX (ed. James Strachey, 1959)
  - 'Huomioita eräästä pakkoneuroositapauksesta', teoksessa Tapauskertomukset (suom. Seppo Hyrkäs, 2006)
• Die Frage der Laienanalyse: Unterredungen mit einem Unparteiischen, 1926
  - The Problem of Lay-Analyses (introduction by Dr. S. Ferenczi, tr. 1927) / The Question of Lay Analysis (tr. by Nancy Proctor-Gregg, 1948) / 'The Question of Lay Analysis', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XX (ed. James Strachey, 1969)
  - Maallikkoanalyysin kysymys. Keskusteluja puolueettoman kanssa (suom. Markus Lång, 2010)
• Die Zukunft einer Illusion, 1927
  - The Future of an Illusion (tr. W.D. Robson-Scott, 1928; James Strachey, 1962) / 'The Future of an Illusion', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (ed. James Strachey, 1961)
  - Erään toivekuvitelman tulevaisuus (suom. Markus Lång, 2011; sisältää myös 'Pakkotoiminnot ja hartausmenot')
•  Dostojewski und die Vatertötung, 1928
  - 'Dostoevsky and Parricide', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (ed. James Strachey, 1961)
  - 'Dostojevski ja isänmurha', teoksessa Uni ja isänmurha: kuusi esseetä taiteesta (suom. Mirja Rutanen, 1995)
• Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, 1929
  - Civilization and Its Discontents (tr. Joan Riviere, 1930; James Strachey, 1967) / 'Civilization and its Discontents,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (ed. James Strachey, 1961)
  - Ahdistava kulttuurimme (suom. Erkki Puranen, 1972)
• Neue Folge der Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse, 1933
  - New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (tr. W.J.H. Sprott, 1933; James Strachey, 1964) / 'New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis,' in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXII (ed. James Strachey, 1964)
• Warum Krieg?, 1933 (with Albert Einstein)
  - Why War?: The Correspondence Between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud (tr. Fritz and Anna Moellenhoff, 1933)
  - Miksi sotaa?: Kirjeenvaihto vuodelta 1932 (suom. Maija Pellikka, 2003)
• Die endliche und die unendliche Analyse, 1937
  - 'Analysis Terminable and Interminable', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXIII (tr. James Strachey, 1964)
• The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, 1938 (6 vols., tr. A.A. Brill; rep. 1995)
• Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion, 1939
  - Moses and Monotheism (tr. Katherine Jones, 1939; James Strachey, 1974) / 'Moses and Monotheism', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXIII (ed. James Strachey, 1964)
• Gesammelte Werke, 1940-68 (18 vols., ed. by Anna Freud, Edward Bibring, Willi Hoffler, Ernst Kris, Otto Isakower, Marie Bonaparte)
• The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 1953-1974 (24 vols., eds. James Strachey, Anna Freud)
• On Creativity and the Unconscious; Papers on the Psychology of Art, Literature, Love, Religion (selected, with introd. and annotations, by Benjamin Nelson, 1958)
• Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 1953-1974 (24 vols., ed. James Strachey and Anna Freud)
• Collected Papers, 1959 (5 vols.,  tr. Alix and James Strachey, ed. James Strache)
• Briefe 1873-1939, 1960 (eds. Ernst and Lucie Freud)
  - Letters of Sigmund Freud (tr. Tania and James Stern, edited by Ernst L. Freud, 1961)
• Sigmund Freud-Oskar Pfister: Briefe, 1909-1939, 1963 (ed. by Ernst L.Freud and Heinrich Meng)
  - Psychoanalysis and Faith: The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister (ed. Heinrich Meng and Ernst L. Freud, tr. Eric Mosbacher, 1963)
• Sigmund Freud/Karl Abraham: Briefe 1907 BIS 1926, 1965 (ed. Hilda Abraham and Ernst L. Freud)
  - A Psychoanalytic Dialogue: The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham, 1907-1926 (tr. Bernard Marsh and Hilda Abraham, 1965)
• Sigmund Freud-Lou Andreas-Salomé: Briefwechsel, 1966 (ed. Ernst Pfeiffer)
  - Sigmund Freud and Lou Andrea-Salome (tr. Elaine and William Robson-Scott, 1972)
• Briefwechsel von Sigmund Freud und Arnold Zweig: 1927-1939, 1968 (ed. Ernst. L. Freud)
  - The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Arnold Zweig (tr. Elaine and William Robson-Scott, 1970)
• Studiensausgabe, 1969-1989 (10 vols., eds. Alexander Mitscherlich, Angela Richards, and James Strachey)
• Freud-Jung: Briefwechsel, 1974
  - The Freud/Jung Letters: The Correspondence between Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung (tr. Ralph Manheim and R. F. C. Hull, 1974)
• Freud-Fliess: Briefe an Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904, 1986 (eds. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Michael Schröter, and Gerhard Fichtner)
  - The Origins of Psycho-Analysys: Letters to Wilhelm Fliess, Drafts and Notes, 1887-1902 (ed. Marie Bonaparte, Anna Freud and Ernst Kriss, tr. Eric Mosbacher and James Strachey, 1954)
  - The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904 (tr. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, 1985)
• The Letters of Sigmund Freud to Eduard Silberstein, 1871-1881, 1990 (tr. A.J. Pomerans)
• The Collected Papers of Sigmund Freud, 1993 (8 vols., tr. Philip Rieff, orig. 10 vols., 1963)
• The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi, 1993-96 (2 vols., tr. Peter T. Hoffer, ed. Eva Brabant, Ernst Falzeder)