Introduction i do not know how familiar some of you may be either from your reading or from hearsay with psychoanalysis but in keeping with the title of these lectures a general introduction to psychoanalysis i am obliged to proceed as though you knew nothing about this subject and stood in need of preliminary instruction. A general introduction to psychoanalysis sigmund freuds controversial ideas have penetrated western culture more deeply than those of any other psychologist the freudian slip the oedipus complex childhood sexuality libido narcissism penis envy the castration complex the id the ego and the superego denial . Introduction to psychoanalysis or introductory lectures on psycho analysis is a set of lectures given by sigmund freud the founder of psychoanalysis in 1915 1917 the 28 lectures offer an elementary stock taking of his views of the unconscious dreams and the theory of neuroses at the time of writing as well as offering some new technical material to the more advanced reader the lectures became the most popular and widely translated of his works however some of the positions . Sigmund freud 1920 a general introduction to psychoanalysis anxiety is the mark which shows that the suppressed wish showed itself stronger than the censorship