Sigmund Freud: The Man Who Mapped the Mind

A young Viennese woman known as Anna O. suffered from a nervous cough, paralysis, and terrifying hallucinations of black snakes. Her doctor, Josef Breuer, found that when he encouraged her to speak about her traumatic memories, her physical symptoms would vanish. She called the process 'chimney-sweeping' or, more famously, 'the talking cure'. Breuer’s colleague, Sigmund Freud, was captivated. Though Freud never treated her as a patient, her case became the foundation of his new science. In 1895, they published 'Studies on Hysteria', introducing the case and famously arguing that 'hysterics suffer mainly from reminiscences.' Freud took the idea further, insisting that the root of such trauma was almost always sexual in nature.