research paper about freud's theory

• Search Menu

Sign in through your institution

• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Acquisition
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Religion
• Music and Media
• Music and Culture
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Neuroanaesthesia
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Medical Ethics
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Strategy
• Business Ethics
• Business History
• Business and Government
• Business and Technology
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic Systems
• Economic History
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• International Political Economy
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Theory
• Politics and Law
• Politics of Development
• Public Administration
• Public Policy
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

A newer edition of this book is available.

• < Previous
• Next chapter >

3.1 Psychoanalysis: Freud's theories and their contemporary development

• Published: February 2012
• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

Psychoanalysis is: 1 A personality theory, and, more generally, a theory of psychological functioning that focuses particularly on unconscious mental processes; 2 A method for the investigation of psychological functions based on the exploration of free associations within a special therapeutic setting; 3 A method for treatment of a broad spectrum of psychopathological conditions, including the symptomatic neuroses (anxiety states, characterological depression, obsessive–compulsive disorder, conversion hysteria, and dissociative hysterical pathology), sexual inhibitions and perversions (‘paraphilias’), and the personality disorders. Psychoanalysis has also been applied, mostly in modified versions, i.e. in psychoanalytic psychotherapies, to the treatment of severe personality disorders, psychosomatic conditions, and certain psychotic conditions, particularly a subgroup of patients with chronic schizophrenic illness. All three aspects of psychoanalysis were originally developed by Freud whose theories of the dynamic unconscious, personality development, personality structure, psychopathology, methodology of psychoanalytic investigation, and method of treatment still largely influence the field, both in the sense that many of his central ideas continue as the basis of contemporary psychoanalytic thinking, and in that corresponding divergencies, controversies, and radical innovations still can be better understood in the light of the overall frame of his contributions. Freud's concepts of dream analysis, mechanisms of defence, and transference have become central aspects of many contemporary psychotherapeutic procedures. Freud's ideas about personality development and psychopathology, the method of psychoanalytic investigation, and the analytic approach to treatment gradually changed in the course of his dramatically creative lifespan. Moreover, the theory of the structure of the mind that he assumed must underlie the events that he observed clinically changed in major respects, so that an overall summary of his views can hardly be undertaken without tracing the history of his thinking. The present overview will lead up to summaries of his final conclusions as to the structure of the mind and how this is reflected in personality development and psychopathology. Psychoanalysis will then be described as a method of treatment, as seen from the point of view of resolution of conflict between impulse and defence, and from that of object-relations theory. We shall explore significant changes that have occurred in all these domains, and conclude with an overview of contemporary psychoanalysis, with particular emphasis upon the presently converging tendencies of contemporary psychoanalytic approaches, and new developments that remain controversial.

Signed in as

Institutional accounts.

• GoogleCrawler [DO NOT DELETE]
• Google Scholar Indexing

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code
• Add your ORCID iD

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card.

• Sign in with username/password
• Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 12 June 2018
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Luis Cordon 3  

171 Accesses

Freudian theory ; Psychodynamic theory

Sigmund Freud’s (1856–1939) revolutionary, unique approach to understanding the human mind and personality, emphasizing the role of unconscious conflicts and motivations in determining human behavior.

Introduction

While its scientific utility (or indeed, its status as a scientific theory) remains a subject of much controversy, there can be no doubt that Sigmund Freud’s (1856–1939) psychoanalytic theory has had as great an impact, both within psychology and in the larger world of medicine and popular culture, as the work of any other thinker before or since. Where Kepler changed humanity’s view of itself by taking away our location at the center of the universe, and Darwin changed it again by taking away our unique status as the obvious pinnacle of biological development, separate from and above the animals, Freud changed our self-regard once more by removing much of our self-awareness, arguing that much of what motivates us...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Cordón, L. A. (2012). Freud’s world: An encyclopedia of his life and times . Santa Barbara: Greenwood.

Google Scholar  

Freud, S. (1900/1953). The interpretation of dreams. Standard Ed., vol. 4. London: Hogarth.

Freud, A. (1937). The ego and the mechanisms of defence . London: Hogarth Press/Institute of Psycho-Analysis..

Freud, S. (1938/1973). An outline of psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT, USA

Luis Cordon

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luis Cordon .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

Todd K. Shackelford

Rochester, MI, USA

Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

Penn State Worthington Scranton, Scranton, USA

Douglas Sellers

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Cordon, L. (2018). Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1303-1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1303-1

Received : 06 November 2016

Accepted : 04 June 2018

Published : 12 June 2018

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-319-16999-6

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-16999-6

eBook Packages : Springer Reference Behavioral Science and Psychology Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Some preliminary notes on an empirical test of freud’s theory on depression.

• Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

A review of the literature indicates that empirical researchers have difficulty translating Freud’s theory on depression into appropriate research questions and hypotheses. In their attempt to do so, the level of complexity in Freud’s work is often lost. As a result, what is empirically tested is no more than a caricature of the original theory. To help researchers avoid such problems, this study presents a conceptual analysis of Freud’s theory of depression as it is presented in Mourning and Melancholia ( Freud, 1917 ). In analyzing Freud’s theory on the etiology of depression, it is essential to differentiate between (1) an identification with the satisfying and frustrating aspects of the love object, (2) the inter- and an intrapersonal loss of the love object, and (3) conscious and unconscious dynamics. A schematic representation of the mechanism of depression is put forward and a research design by which this schema can be empirically investigated is outlined.

Introduction

A review of the empirical research into Freud’s theory on depression reveals two major problems. First, there is often a dramatic gap between Freud’s theory and the hypotheses empirical researchers develop from it. Most illustrative of this is the way in which Freud’s theoretical ideas about the association between depression and experiences of loss have been put to the test. In this context, Fisher and Greenberg (1996 , p.26) observe that “with minor exceptions, researchers have chosen to define loss in terms of loss of significant family figures (primarily parents) usually due to death.” However, even a superficial reading of Freud’s (1917) ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ would suffice to show that his notion of loss is situated at a different level. Freud states that “In melancholia, the occasions which give rise to the illness extend for the most part beyond the clear case of a loss by death, and include all those situations of being slighted, neglected, or disappointed, which can import opposed feelings of love and hate into the relationship or reinforce an already existing ambivalence” ( Freud, 1917 , p. 251). For Freud there is no reason to believe that a loss – be it by death, divorce, or any other reason – should necessarily lead to depression if it is not connected to a feeling of being slighted or disappointed, and if it does not introduce a profound ambivalence toward what is lost. Fisher and Greenberg’s (1996 , p. 29) review of the empirical research into the association between depression and loss concludes that “The symptoms of a major segment of those who become clinically depressed have not, in any empirical fashion, been shown to have been triggered by a loss as such.” What is ironic about Fisher and Greenberg’s (1996 ) observations, however, is that they are put forward as part of an argument against the validity of Freudian theory.

The second problem with empirical research into Freud’s theory of depression is that it virtually always focuses on isolated associations between depression and theoretically related variables, such as loss, narcissistic identification, feeling slighted, introjection of aggression, ambivalence, etc. (e.g., Fisher and Greenberg, 1996 , pp. 24–25). It is clear, however, that in an isolated state, these variables are potentially related to a variety of other types of psychopathology as well. For example, ambivalence can be associated with obsessional neurosis, feeling slighted with hysteria, narcissistic identification with psychosis. As we will show in this study, Freud’s (1917) text clearly indicates that isolated expressions of these different characteristics should not be thought of as typical of depression; what Freud emphasizes is the occurrence of these different characteristics in a specific constellation .

Overall, the complexity of Freud’s theory is such that empirical researchers appear to have had difficulty translating it into appropriate hypotheses and research questions. Without a thorough understanding of Freud’s work, however, any hypotheses and research questions borne out of it will be overly simplistic. This means that testing such hypotheses will not reflect a test of the theory he put forward. One of the biggest challenges for psychoanalysis is reducing the gap between theory and empirical research. Indeed, conceptual and empirical research are too often carried out in separate spheres. Nevertheless, all research should start from theory and hopefully return to it. Without a robust theoretical framework empirical research has no compass and it is not long before one loses track of the phenomena under investigation.

In this study I present a conceptual analysis of Freud’s (1917) Mourning and Melancholia that can serve as a starting point for qualitative and quantitative research. In the course of my analysis, I draw from my own clinical practice to elaborate certain aspects of Freud’s theory. This clinical component of my analysis mainly consists of unsystematic observations and is introduced only as an elaboration of certain of Freud’s ideas. The conditions in which these observations were made are not explicitly outlined in this paper. As discussed below, in future research, the theoretical structure put forward here should be contrasted with clinical data gathered and analyzed in a systematic way. A research design that would be appropriate in this regard is presented in the final part of this study.

Conceptual Analysis of Freud’s Theory on Depression

Above we argued that Freud conceived the experience of object loss in depression in a broader sense than the mere loss of a loved one through death. Such an interpretation not only misunderstands how Freud conceptualized the nature of the experience of loss, but also erroneously implies that loss is the cause of depression. Such causal reasoning is nowhere to be found at this stage of Freud’s work, where the reader will find his theoretical ideas are far more complex.

The first thing to note about Freud’s line of reasoning in Mourning and Melancholia is that loss is first experienced at the inter personal level and is, in a second moment, repeated at the intra personal level. The first loss is situated in relation to a loved one. Here he states that “An object-choice, an attachment of the libido to a particular person, had at one time existed; then, owing to a real slight or disappointment coming from this loved person, the object-relationship was shattered” ( Freud, 1917 , pp. 248–249). This slight turns a quantum of love into hate and thus entails ambivalence toward the loved person. As a consequence of this conflict, the loved one is dropped. Freud does not go into further detail about the nature of this “slight or disappointment.” However, my own clinical observations suggest that the slight is often passive in nature. The love object failed to act when the patient was in a situation where she/he needed help. This situation is usually associated with a broader Oedipal constellation: in the narratives of patients affected by severe depression, there is usually a polarized description of the parents. One of them is described as a tyrant, who oppressed both the other parent and the patient. The other parent is usually described as a victim; weak and unable to defend him/herself. The narratives of such patients also often refer to the tyrant-parent as the one who is the cause of all suffering. In this context, it is not infrequent that the patient gives accounts of having been done some kind of great injustice by him/her. The other parent – who is usually in the position of love object – is often described as having been too weak to intervene. The therapeutic process often reveals that at an unconscious level, this failure was the trigger for the depression. Thus, with respect to the “slights and disappointments” outlined in Freud’s etiology of depression, we must distinguish between the conscious and the unconscious level. At the conscious level, we find a certain injustice inflicted by the tyrant-parent; at the unconscious level we find the passiveness of the victim-parent.

As stated above, Freud did not consider such slights and disappointments to be the cause of depression. The cause is rather situated at the level of a specific way of responding to such disappointments. After being (seriously) disappointed by the love object, most people transfer their libidinal investment to another person, i.e., they replace their love object with another. However, people vulnerable to depression react in another way. They withdraw the libido from the object to the ego and reinvest it in two ways. On the one hand, it is used to erect a narcissistic identification with the love object. On the other hand it is invested in sadistic impulses operating in the super-ego which attack the identification with the love object in the ego by means of harsh self-reproaches. Finally, the sadism prevails and the libidinal investments of the representations of the object in the ego are given up. This is the second loss, the intrapersonal loss, which is a loss of libido in the ego. Below I describe the different aspects of the process that leads to this intrapersonal loss in more detail, starting with Freud’s theory on the mechanism of identification.

In Freud’s view, identification always occurs in relation to a love object. People identify with something because it offers a certain advantage in the struggle for a love object. In Lacanian terms, we might say that people identify with something – a signifier – because it gives them a place in the desire of a loved other. Freud distinguishes between two types of identification. Hysterical identification – which is the most common – is an identification with the possessor of the love object . In other words, to have success in the competition for the desire of a loved other, one identifies with someone who already proved to be successful. This is the basic mechanism in hysterical epidemics. Let’s take the example of a school where all pupils are suddenly afflicted with stomach aches. When the first pupil falls ill, apparently due to the consumption of contaminated food in the school restaurant, the others – without having eaten the contaminated food – might unconsciously interpret the reactions of compassion extended to the affected pupil as a sign of love. Consequently, they begin to experience the same symptoms. The second type of identification is more unusual and concerns an identification with the love object itself . Freud (1921 , p.108) gives the example of a boy who is closely attached to his mother and who, upon being sent to boarding school, starts taking care of the other children in the same way as his mother took care of him. Thus, to deal with the loss of the love object, he becomes the love object. According to Freud, this is what happens in depression. Upon being disappointed by a love object, the patient identifies with it. Freud does not specify, however, with what aspects of the love object the patient identifies. On the basis of my clinical experience, however, I put forward the hypothesis that it concerns an identification with the slighting, disappointing aspects of the object. I argued above that the disappointment in depression is passive in nature: the depressed person feels distress because the love object does not take the desired action. The depressive state – which is essentially a state of deep passivity and refusal to react to the stimuli of life – always boils down to an identification with the passiveness of the love object. The patient reacts to the failure of the love object according to the “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” principle (i.e., “if you don’t do anything for me, then I won’t do anything for you either”).

This sheds light on the subsequent step in Freud’s description of the etiology of depression. After identifying with the love object, sadism from the super-ego is directed at the newly formed identifications. However, this does not seem to be entirely correct: the sadism from the super-ego does not so much attack the new identification with the love object, but attacks the identification with the object that was made before the disappointment, when the relationship was predominantly satisfying. In that period, the patient installed narcissistic identifications with the tender, loving, and caring aspects of the love object. This is perhaps the reason why many depressive patients show excessively altruistic characteristics before the depression manifests, making them over-represented in care-giving occupations. In other words, the mental process of the depressed individual boils down to this: “Because you disappointed me by being passive in a situation in which I needed you, I will take revenge by becoming passive as well, and I won’t love or care for you any longer.”

Thus, what is lost at the intrapersonal level is the identification with the positive characteristics of the love object that was made prior to the disappointments. What is “gained” in this process is a set of identifications with the negative aspects of the love object. This has certain consequences. First, the depressive person feels worthless, a failure with respect to his/her altruistic ideals (stemming from the initial identification with the love object). Consequently, the depressive person starts to reproach himself/herself over a series of things that apply to the negative aspects of the love object. Here we are perfectly in line with Freud’s theory again, which explicitly states that self-reproaches are actually reproaches made toward the love object. Indeed, Freud remarks that such reproaches always simultaneously address identifications with the love object in the ego and the love object itself. This love object is often found to be in close proximity to the patient and is more or less burdened by the depression of the patient ( Freud, 1917 , p. 251). The destructive effect of depression on the people surrounding the affected individual has been documented extensively in empirical research (e.g., Coyne, 1976 ) and is one of the most characteristic aspects of Freud’s theory. In the end, Freud states, depression always boils down to sadism: by being unwell, the depressive patient attempts to torture the former love object, punishing him/her for his/her failures.

The exact mechanism of depressive sadism is not described in detail by Freud, but it is easy to see that it operates via the mechanism of commiseration . The depressive knows that if he/she suffers, the love object will suffer with him/her. That is why suffering becomes an attractor. Here we can refer to the critical analysis of Christianity that Nietzsche (1895) makes in The Antichrist . Christianity declared commiseration to be the fundamental virtue. Yet, according to Nietzsche, it is a vice rather than a virtue because, on the one hand, it multiplies suffering (when one person commiserates with a suffering person, two people suffer) and, on the other, because it makes suffering attractive (because it has an impact on the other). In the final analysis, therefore, the epidemic of depression in the Western industrialized world might be partially a consequence of centuries of cultivating commiseration as the highest virtue.

It’s important, however, to differentiate between an imaginary and a symbolic dimension in commiseration. The symbolic dimension is better indicated by the term compassion . Commiseration then implies that one sympathizes with the imago’s of suffering by which a depressive presents himself to the world. As such, it renders permanent those imago’s and it is therefore associated with resistance and stagnation in the depressive state ( Lacan, 1953a , b ). Compassion, however, implies a readiness to take a subject’s speech seriously, to confirm the inevitability of suffering within the parameters of the subjectivity of the patient, and to recognize the subjective strainedness in the discourse of the other. It’s this openness to speech that can be expected to transform the patient’s subjective structure and depressive experiences. As such, compassion is essential to the dénouement of the knot of depression.

Furthermore, a striking difference can be observed between conscious and unconscious mechanisms in depression. With respect to the slight, at the conscious level depressive complaints address the aggressive oppression of the tyrant-parent. At the unconscious level depressive complaints address the passiveness of the victim-parent. A similar distinction can be observed in the individual’s self-reproach. At the conscious level, aggression (from the super-ego) is directed toward the passive aspects of the ego. The content of the self-reproach always boils down to the fact that she/he is sick and passive, unable to do anything for loved ones. At the unconscious level, however, aggression is clearly directed toward the positive, caring aspects of the love object. Because the depressive feels slighted by the passiveness of the love object, she/he refuses to offer love and care any longer. In this light, the self-reproach that one cannot care anymore has to be qualified as false. Thus, depression reveals the fundamental falseness of the human ego. Or, as Lacan (1963 , p. 79) puts it in the tenth seminar, it testifies to the fact that the human subject is essentially an entity that erases its own traces.

Before integrating the results of our analysis into a schema, we will discuss one other aspect of Freud’s (1917) Mourning and Melancholia. In this text, Freud does not specify whether the love object he is referring to is a love object from childhood or from the time when the patient becomes depressed. In line with the Freud broader theoretical frame, it seems clear that he is referring to both. In childhood, the future depressive’s representation of the love object was outlined above, i.e., at the conscious level the love object is represented as weak but loving, while at the unconscious level the love object is represented as disappointing and passive. Since these representations are invested with libido, the future depressive will love others who match these representations. This means that this set of representations – of signifiers in Lacanian terms – will pre-program a repetition of the same disappointment in later life. As soon as this becomes manifest, the whole mechanism described above is effectuated and inevitably leads to the depressive phenomenology. This should not imply that from time to time this deadly repetition cannot be halted, usually in an encounter with someone who is able to convince the depressive person that there is another way to exist for an Other.

This was, in a nutshell, Freud’s theory on depression. Figure 1 presents the logical structure as it is presented by Freud in Mourning and Melancholia. Figure 2 presents the same logical structure extended with the elaborations presented above.

Figure 1. The intra- and interpersonal loss in the etiology of depression according to the theory of Freud in Mourning and Melancholia .

Figure 2. The intra- and interpersonal loss in the etiology of depression differentiating between identifications with positive and negative aspects of the object .

Research Designs Appropriate to Test Freudian Theory on Depression

As was argued in the introduction, it is the totality of the mechanism presented in Figures 1 and 2 that should be tested in empirical research, not isolated components of it. None of the constituent parts can be deemed typical of depression. Hypotheses focusing on the different constituent parts (e.g., “Depressives systematically report feeling slighted by the passivity of their love objects”) can be formulated, but a global assessment of the structure described above is still needed.

The research design most appropriate for the assessment of this clinical complexity is without a doubt the naturalistic single case-study design. In naturalistic single case-study research the therapeutic process is studied in detail and in such a way that it interferes minimally with daily practice. This, of course, does not mean that the act of investigation leaves no traces: such research is suitable only for certain patients, where the therapist can reasonably believe that the research component will not interfere with the therapeutic process. In permissible cases, therapy sessions are recorded with the informed consent of the patient. Throughout the treatment, psychological and biological variables are measured, and medication use and health-care expenses are documented. Contrary to what is often believed, recording sessions proves to have little or no inhibiting effect on patients’ speech ( Kächele et al., 2009 ). Psychometric evaluations are limited to self-report questionnaires, assessing “general distress,” and the patient’s specific symptoms. These assessments take no more than a few minutes and are conducted after every session. Few studies on the validity of psychometric measurements in single case-study designs have been carried out until now. However, it can be anticipated that for most variables included in single case-study designs, psychometric measurements will be far more precise compared to group designs. Important sources of measurement error, such as differential interpretations of scales between subjects and spontaneous fluctuations in the variables under investigation, are absent in single case-study research or can be controlled for.

In addition to the therapy recordings and the self-report data, once per month saliva samples are taken for four consecutive days, each morning and evening. The samples are gathered by the patient him/herself, at home, by chewing on a piece of wadding and placing it into a small tube (a so-called salivette ). In these saliva samples, evolutions in the concentrations of hormones, such as cortisol, testosterone, and androstenone, can be registered through mass spectrometry. Receptor sensitivity on the genetic material in the saliva can also be determined. Gathering saliva samples is a non-intrusive and reliable method of investigating the biological effects of psychotherapy. When the therapy is complete, the therapy recordings are transcribed verbatim and the researcher can carry out an analysis of the data.

The ultimate goal of the analysis is evaluate the global structure of depression. In doing so, we start from the following assumptions: (1) That the theoretical structure specified above determines depressive complaints; (2) That the patient will progressively become aware of this structure during the therapeutic process and that this structure will appear more and more explicit in his/her speech; and (3) That depressive complaints will decrease, not at the moment the patient becomes aware of the depressogenic structure, but at the moment he/she distances him/herself from it, i.e., at the moment he/she replaces identifications with the passive/destructive aspects of the love object with identifications with active/constructive aspects of the love object. Merely gaining insight into this structure might well intensify the patient’s complaints; in most cases, a substantial period of working-through – in which the depressive identifications are progressively restructured and replaced by other identifications – will be needed.

In the first step of the analysis, fragments of the clinical material that refer to each of the separate elements of the theoretical structure (e.g., feeling slighted by a love object, ambivalence toward love object, etc.) are marked in the transcripts of the recorded sessions. As the therapeutic process progresses, we hypothesize that the patient will progressively integrate all of the separate elements into a comprehensive narrative surrounding his/her depression. Therefore, qualitative assessment is used to determine whether the integration of the separate elements happens in a theory consistent or inconsistent way. To quantify this process, the Integration Index (INTI) can be computed by simply adding all of the different theory-congruent associations between the separate elements within a certain range of sessions (e.g., sessions 5–10, sessions 60–65, etc.). As the depressive gains insight into the structure of his/her depressive experiences (i.e., as the above-described structure appears in the narratives of the depressive), we suppose that new – non-depressive – identifications will appear in the depressive’s narratives. To quantify this process, the Non-Depressive Identifications Index (NDII) can be computed by counting the references to such identifications in the transcriptions of the sessions. While we hypothesize a zero-correlation between the INTI and depressive complaints (as measured by the self-report questionnaires and the stress hormones), we hypothesize a significantly negative correlation between the NDII and depressive complaints (i.e., as the former increases, the latter will decrease). In general, four possible observations will lead to complete or partial rejection of the hypothesized structure: (1) The separate characteristics are not observed in the narrative material; (2) Theory-incongruent associations are observed between the separate characteristics; and (3) The INTI shows a negative correlation with measures of depressive complaints; and (4) The NDII does not show the predicted negative associations with measures of depressive complaints.

With respect to selecting participants for such studies, patients for whom depression is the primary complaint are the most suitable. Participants can be selected according to DSM-IV criteria, by means of the Structured Interview for DSM-IV diagnostics (SCID-II; First et al., 1997 ) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996 ). It is often the case that psychological problems are accompanied by a certain feeling of depression. In other words, depression can manifest as a side effect of another type of problem. While in such cases the mechanism of the depression might be similar to the one outlined above, these patients should not be considered suitable for studies of this kind. Studying subtypes of depression, such as the anaclitic and introjective types described by Blatt (1974) , is essential in understanding the differential manifestation of depressive phenomenology in different personality structures, but it is of secondary importance to the investigation of the general mechanism of depression. Such subtypes are arguably variations of the general mechanisms of depression, effectuated by differences at the level of the broader personality organization.

Some authors argue that in Mourning and Melancholia Freud is referring to psychotic depression. This interpretation seems to be based on the fact that Freud used the term melancholia rather than depression. However, Freud’s remarks in the beginning of this text make clear that he was referring to depression in general, and not (only) psychotic depression. The use of the term melancholia was widespread in German psychiatry in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, in his well-known case-study of Dora, Freud makes clear that he considered melancholia treatable by means of psychoanalysis ( Freud, 1905 , p. 54). Bearing in mind that he did not consider psychoanalytic treatment appropriate for psychotic disorders, it seems highly improbable that he used the term melancholia with reference to psychotic depression.

Apart from diagnostic specifications, there are other restrictions in the selection of participants for single case-study research into depression. Not all depressive patients will be motivated to go through such an arduous and often long-term therapeutic process. Some patients will have a preference for another type of therapy, some might terminate the treatment before it reaches the point where the underlying structure is revealed. The application of our research procedure is therefore limited to the subgroup of patients that choose for psychoanalytic therapy. Whether this type of therapy is more effective in reducing depressive complaints than other types of therapy is a question that cannot be addressed in single case-study research (see also Desmet, 2013 ). What can be addressed, however, is the specific nature of the effects of psychoanalytic therapy and the process that leads to these effects. There are undoubtedly many roads toward recovery from depressive symptoms. The effects of the different types of therapy on the broader personality organization – or the subjectivity of the patient – however, might be quite different. Certain therapies, such as behavioral therapies, aim the straightforward restoration of the cohesion of the patient’s Ego, without making a detour to the unconscious or non-integrated aspects of the patient’s subjectivity; other therapies, such as psychoanalysis, do undertake this detour in order to place the patient in charge of his own life and to make him the author of his own history; still other therapies aim at a temporarily relief from depressing drives and ideations by means of pharmaceutical interventions to open up a pathway out of the depressive experiences. Whether or not interventions are successful probably depends on the match between the type of interventions and the characteristics of the patient’s personality.

Discussion and Conclusion

In the first part of this study we presented a conceptual analysis of Freud’s theory of depression. In doing so, we highlighted the demonic side of depression, i.e., the sadistic drive. From a therapeutic perspective, it is important to situate the sadistic drive at the appropriate level. Depression – like any other type of sadism – is an ultimate attempt to exist for a significant other. When the subject does not exist for another through tenderness, he might do so by inflicting pain. Through the suffering of the other, the sadist finds confirmation that he/she exists for him/her. What is unbearable for the subject is the indifference of the other. In this respect, sadism is a derivate of love. Tracing back depressive sadism to its roots in love, reintegrating it in the subjective experience of love, might be the ultimate therapeutic effect.

This conceptual analysis resulted in a figure representing a schematic overview of Freud’s causal reasoning on depression. In the second part of this study, we presented a single case research design to put this theory to the test. In this design, we proposed to start from the identification of separate characteristics of depression in the clinical material. Subsequently, assessment of the global structure of depression can happen through an examination of the associations between the separate characteristics. From conceptual, clinical, and psychometric perspectives, I believe this research design is adequate for testing Freud’s theory on depression. It is without any doubt that the logical structure presented here will have to be adapted in confrontation with empirical material. Therefore, it cannot be considered an established body of knowledge, but only a fertile starting point for empirical research.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., and Brown, G. K. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory , 2nd Edn. San Antonio: Harcourt Assessment.

Blatt, S. J. (1974). Levels of object representation in anaclitic and introjective depression. Psychoanal. Study Child 24, 107–157.

Coyne, J. C. (1976). Toward an interactional description of depression. Psychiatry 39, 28–40.

Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text

Desmet, M. (2013). Experimental versus naturalistic psychotherapy research: consequences for researchers, clinicians, policy makers and patients. Psychoanal. Persp. 31, 59–78.

First, M. B., Gibbon, R. L., Spitzer, M., and Williams, J. B. W. (1997). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders, (SCID-II) . Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.

Fisher, S., and Greenberg, R. P. (1996). Freud Scientifically Reappraised . New York: John Wiley.

Freud, S. (1905). “Fragment of the analysis of a case of hysteria,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , Vol. 7, ed. J. Stratchey, trans (London: Hogarth), 7–122.

Freud, S. (1917). “Mourning and melancholia,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , Vol. 14, ed. J. Stratchey, trans (London: Hogarth), 237–260.

Freud, S. (1921). “Group psychology and the analysis of the ego,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , Vol. 18, ed. J. Stratchey, trans (London: Hogarth), 69–143.

Kächele, H., Schachter, J., and Thomä, H. (2009). From Psychoanalytic Narrative to Empirical Single Case Research . New York: Routledge.

Lacan, J. (1953a). Le symbolique, l’imaginaire, et le réele. Bull. Assoc. Freudienne , 1, 4–13.

Lacan, J. (1953b). Le séminaire livre I: Les écrits techniques de Freud . Paris: Editions du Seuil.

Lacan, J. (1963). Le séminaire livre X: L’Angoisse . Paris: Editions du Seuil.

Nietzsche, F. (1895). The Antichrist . London: Penguin Books.

Keywords: mourning and melancholia, depression, narcissistic identification, conceptual analysis

Citation: Desmet M (2013) Some preliminary notes on an empirical test of Freud’s theory on depression. Front. Psychol. 4 :158. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00158

Received: 20 September 2012; Paper pending published: 02 October 2012; Accepted: 14 March 2013; Published online: 07 May 2013.

Reviewed by:

Copyright: © 2013 Desmet. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.

*Correspondence: Mattias Desmet, Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Henry Dunantlaan 2, Ghent 9000, Belgium. e-mail: mattias.desmet@ugent.be

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

6. SIGMUND FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

2020, Langlit

This research paper focuses on analyzing the psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalysis method. Sigmund Freud is the father of modern psychology, which analyzes the human mind and claims that the unconscious mind, controls the conscious mind. The human mind has different layers like a conscious mind, preconscious mind, and unconscious mind. Ego, superego, and id are the apparatuses of the mind and functioning in person. The unconscious mind is a repository from which one's personality has emerged. Dreams are the indirect outlets of the unconscious mind. Therefore, in the psychoanalysis method, dreams are the royal roads to the unconscious mind. Freud's theory analyzes the life instinct and death instinct in human beings. Life strives for the dialectical synthesis of birth and death. Freud's two disciples expressed dissent against his libido theory and established their independent schools of psychology.

Related Papers

Valentine E H I C H I O Y A Obinyan

For Freud, dreams are fundamentally guardian of sleep, they extinguish all external and internal stimuli. Essentially, should one continue to sleep undisturbed, strong negative emotions, forbidden thoughts and unconscious desires have to be disguised or censored in some form or another, while confronted by these, the dreamer would be terrified. Freud believed the dream to be composed of two parts; the manifest and the latent content although in rare cases they are indistinguishable. However, latent content is transformed into manifest content through a process he called "dream work" which, in four ways, disguises and distorts the latent thoughts. But how does this account for a subjective personal unconscious experience? What are dreams? Are they only sexually meaningful and symbolic as Freud inferred? How substantial is Freud's principle of dream symbols and possibility of arriving at the meaning of dreams? Does this theory give any understanding of the dreamer's subconscious? With the critically analysis method, the researcher examines the implications of Freud's analysis of dreams and concludes affirmatively that to say that dreams are only sexually meaningful and symbolic, is a position of an extreme reactionist as dreams also have deep psychological, epistemological and religious significant value to human psycho understanding.

Dreams, Interpretation of Dreams, Sexuality, Subconcious, Councious, Classes of Dreams, Jung, Collective and Personal Subconcious, Dream in Dream, Past-Now-Future, Symbolic Dreams, Free Association Method, Psycho-analysis, Psico-theraphy, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud.

Postmodern Openings

Marius Dumitrescu

Psychoanalytic Psychology

Frank Summers

International Journal of Psychoanalysis

Science Journal of Psychology

Valentine Obinyan

Angelica Garcia

John Hendrix

A study of Freud's concepts about how dreams occur and his theories about language and perception.

Lisbern Shawn

RELATED PAPERS

Dia Oktavia

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Victor Madrid Horna

Analytical Sciences

Atta Ur Rehman

Agata Łukomska

Waste and Biomass Valorization

Adele Muscolo

Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine

Asian Journal of Neurosurgery

Kashif Sultan

Mihajlo Vićentijević

Reumatologia

Rekha Mathur

GMU学位证 乔治梅森大学学位证

GESWI Publications marzo 2023

Pablo Fernandez

Cindy Claudia

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Isaac Odoi Danquah

Anas Dablool

International Journal of Agriculture Innovations and Research

Dr. Gokil Prasad Gangwar

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

Neil Hammerschlag

Nargis Sultana Chowdhury

Applied Physics Letters

Mats Fahlman

Emilly Oliveira

Biophysical Journal

Eduardo Calderon Rojas

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2024 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

An Overview of Sigmund Freud's Theories

How the Father of Psychology Came to Be

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Emily is a board-certified science editor who has worked with top digital publishing brands like Voices for Biodiversity, Study.com, GoodTherapy, Vox, and Verywell.

Library of Congress / Contributor / Getty Images 

• Talk Therapy
• Personality
• Psychosexual Development
• Dream Analysis
• Defense Mechanisms
• Female Psychology

Frequently Asked Questions

If you've ever taken or are currently taking psychology, chances are that you've spent a fair amount of time learning about Sigmund Freud's theory. Even those outside the psychology field often have some awareness of Freudian psychoanalysis, the school of thought created by Sigmund Freud.

In simple terms, Freud's theory suggests that human behavior is influenced by unconscious memories, thoughts, and urges. This theory also proposes that the psyche comprises three aspects: the id, ego, and superego . The id is entirely unconscious, while the ego operates in the conscious mind. The superego operates both unconsciously and consciously.

Knowing more about Freudian psychology, along with the key concepts in psychoanalysis—like the unconscious, fixations, defense mechanisms , and dream symbols —can help you understand the influence Freud's theories have had on contemporary psychologists .

Click Play to Learn More About Sigmund Freud's Theories

This video has been medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD .

In this brief overview of Freudian theory, learn more about some of the major ideas proposed by Sigmund Freud.

Sigmund Freud's Theory of Talk Therapy

One of Freud's greatest contributions to psychology was talk therapy , the notion that simply talking about problems can help alleviate them. It was through his association with his close friend and colleague Josef Breuer that Freud became aware of a woman known in the case history as Anna O .

The young woman's real name was Bertha Pappenheim. She became a patient of Breuer's after suffering a bout of what was then known as hysteria . Symptoms included blurred vision, hallucinations, and partial paralysis.

Breuer observed that discussing her experiences provided some relief from her symptoms. It was Pappenheim herself who began referring to the treatment as the "talking cure."

While Anna O. is often described as one of Freud's patients, the two never actually met. Freud often discussed her case with Breuer, however, and the two collaborated on an 1895 book based on her treatment titled Studies in Hysteria .

Freud concluded that her hysteria was the result of childhood sexual abuse , a view that ended up leading to a rift in Freud and Breuer's professional and personal relationship. Anna O. may not have actually been Freud's patient, but her case informed much of Freud's work and later theories on therapy and psychoanalysis .

Freud's Theory of Personality

According to Freud's theory, there are a few different factors that affect personality. They include cathexis and anticathexis, along with life and death instincts.

Cathexis and Anticathexis

According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, all psychic energy is generated by libido . Freud suggested that our mental states were influenced by two competing forces: cathexis and anticathexis .

• Cathexis was described as an investment of mental energy in a person, idea, or object.
• Anticathexis involves the ego blocking the socially unacceptable needs of the id. Repressing urges and desires is one common form of anticathexis, but this involves a significant investment of energy.

If you are hungry, for example, you might create a mental image of a delicious meal that you have been craving. In other cases, the ego might harness some energy from the id (the primitive mind) to seek out activities related to the desire in order to disperse excess energy from the id.

Sticking with the same example, if you can't actually seek out food to appease your hunger, you might instead thumb through a cookbook or browse through your favorite recipe blog.

According to Freud's theory, there is only so much libidinal energy available. When a lot of energy is devoted to suppressing urges via anticathexis, there is less energy for other processes.

Life Instincts and Death Instincts

Freud also believed that much of human behavior was motivated by two driving instincts: life instincts and death instincts .

• Life instincts (Eros) are those that relate to a basic need for survival, reproduction, and pleasure. They include such things as the need for food, shelter, love, and sex.
• Death instincts (Thanatos) are the result of an unconscious wish for death, which Freud believed all humans have. Self-destructive behavior was one expression of the death drive, according to Freud. However, he believed that these death instincts were largely tempered by life instincts.

Sigmund Freud's Theory of the Psyche

In Freudian theory, the human mind is structured into two main parts: the conscious and unconscious mind .

• The conscious mind includes all the things we are aware of or can easily bring into awareness.
• The unconscious mind , on the other hand, includes all of the things outside of our awareness—all of the wishes, desires, hopes, urges, and memories that we aren't aware of yet continue to influence behavior.

Freudian psychology compares the mind to an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg that is actually visible above the water represents just a tiny portion of the mind. On the other hand, the huge expanse of ice hidden underneath the water represents the much larger unconscious.

There is some question as to whether the iceberg metaphor came from Freud himself or one of his biographers, as some researchers indicate that there was no mention of an iceberg in Freud's writings.

In addition to these two main components of the mind, Freudian theory also divides human personality into three major components: the id, ego, and superego .

• The id is the most primitive part of the personality that is the source of all our most basic urges. The id is entirely unconscious and serves as the source of all libidinal energy.
• The ego is the component of personality that deals with reality and helps ensure that the demands of the id are satisfied in ways that are realistic, safe, and socially acceptable.
• The superego is the part of the personality that holds all of the internalized morals and standards that we acquire from our parents, family, and society at large.

Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development

Freudian theory suggests that as children develop, they progress through a series of psychosexual stages . At each stage, the libido's pleasure-seeking energy is focused on a different part of the body.

The five stages of psychosexual development are:

• The oral stage : The libidinal energies are focused on the mouth.
• The anal stage : The libidinal energies are focused on the anus.
• The phallic stage : The libidinal energies are focused on the penis or clitoris.
• The latent stage : A period of calm in which little libidinal interest is present.
• The genital stage : The libidinal energies are focused on the genitals.

The successful completion of each stage leads to a healthy personality as an adult. If, however, a conflict remains unresolved at any particular stage, the individual might remain fixated or stuck at that particular point of development.

A fixation can involve an over-dependence or obsession with something related to that phase of development. For example, a person with an "oral fixation" is believed to be stuck at the oral stage of development. Signs of an oral fixation might include excessive reliance on oral behaviors such as smoking, biting fingernails, or eating.

Freud's Theory of Dream Analysis

The unconscious mind played a critical role in all of Freud's theories, and he considered dreams to be one of the key ways to take a peek into what lies outside our conscious awareness.

He dubbed dreams "the royal road to the unconscious" and believed that by examining dreams, he could see not only how the unconscious mind works but also what it is trying to hide from conscious awareness.

Freud believed the content of dreams could be broken down into two different types:

• The manifest content of a dream included all the actual content of the dream—the events, images, and thoughts contained within the dream. The manifest content is essentially what the dreamer remembers upon waking.
• The latent content , on the other hand, is all the hidden and symbolic meanings within the dream. Freud believed that dreams were essentially a form of wish fulfillment. By taking unconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires and transforming them into less threatening forms, people are able to reduce the ego's anxiety.

Freud often utilized the analysis of dreams as a starting point in his free association technique. When working with a client, he would focus on a particular dream symbol, then use free association to see what other thoughts and images immediately came to the client's mind.

Freud's Theory of Defense Mechanisms

Even if you've never studied Freud's theories before, you have probably heard the term "defense mechanisms." When someone seems unwilling to face a painful truth, you might accuse them of being " in denial ." If they try to look for a logical explanation for unacceptable behavior, you might suggest that they are "rationalizing."

For instance, rationalizations for smoking might include "one cigarette won't hurt me" or "if I quit, I'll just gain weight."

Denial and rationalization represent different types of defense mechanisms, or tactics that the ego uses to protect itself from anxiety. Some of the best-known mechanisms of defense include denial, repression , and regression , but there are many more.

Freud's Theory of Female Psychology

Freud's perspective on women was, and continues to be, one of his most controversial. One of his theories relating to female psychology is known as the Electra complex, also sometimes referred to as penis envy.

According to Freud, females start out close to their mothers. But once they realize they don't have a penis, they start to hate their moms for mutilating them, then become close to their dad. At the same time, females start to imitate their mom because they fear the loss of her affection.

The Electra complex is the opposite of the Oedipus complex , which Freud contended is when a male child develops a sexual attachment to his mother, viewing his father as a sexual rival.

Freud's Theory of Religion

Freud theorized that religious beliefs are essentially delusions, and also that turning away from these types of ideologies is preferable because religion does not lead to happiness and fulfillment; in fact, it is a belief structure not based on evidence.

Freud felt that a person's religious views were, at least in part, a result of their relationship with their father. He believed that people tend to depict their idea of a "God" based on the qualities and traits of the father figure in their life and that these qualities changed as their relationship with their father changed.

It is believed that Freud's theory of religion was influenced by his relationship with his own father. Freud had a Jewish upbringing, which he said he had no desire to change, yet he also stated that he was "completely estranged from the religion of his fathers—as well as from every other religion."

Impact of Freudian Theory

While Freud's theories have been widely criticized, they are still important because his work has made contributions to psychology as we know it today.

Psychotherapy

Many contemporary psychologists do not give credence to Freud's ideas, but the theories remain important. And research has validated the effectiveness of various forms of talk therapy, such as one finding that psychodynamic therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy were both effective for treating anxiety in college-age students. Freud's belief that mental problems could be resolved by actually talking about them helped revolutionize psychotherapy.

When the patient and analyst are well suited to work together, they can see how the patient's past gets reactivated in their current therapy and much learning takes place.

Freud's theories have also sparked a major change in how we view mental illness by suggesting that not all psychological problems have physiological causes.

Freud's contributions have also impacted the foundational science of what we know about psychology today. His idea that our thoughts are largely unconscious has withstood scientific scrutiny, for instance, retaining their importance in understanding human development and behavior.

Freud has even influenced thoughts about how society has formed into what it is today. Some believe that his theories help explain some of the successes of modern society while also explaining some of its failures.

Final Thoughts

To understand where psychology is today, it is essential to take a look at where we've been and how we got here. Freud's work provides insight into an important movement in psychology that helped transform how we think about mental health and how we approach psychological disorders .

By studying Freud's theories and those that came after, you gain a better understanding of psychology's fascinating history. Many terms such as defense mechanism , Freudian slip , and anal retentive have become a part of our everyday language. By learning about his work and theories, you can understand how these ideas and concepts became woven into the fabric of popular culture.

After starting his career as a doctor at Vienna General Hospital, Freud entered private practice, specializing in the treatment of psychological disorders. It was during this time in private practice that Freud started to develop his theories.

These theories were later refined through Freud's associations with Josef Breuer, a colleague and friend who was treating a patient with hysteria. Based on this case, Freud developed the theory that many neuroses originate from trauma that has transitioned from the conscious mind to the unconscious mind.

While Freud's psychosexual theory is rooted in basic needs and physiological driving forces, Erikson's psychosocial theory places more emphasis on one's environment.

Erikson's and Freud's theories also vary in terms of stages of development. For instance, the first stage of development according to Freudian theory is the oral stage, while the first stage of development according to Erikson's theory is trust versus mistrust.

Another difference is the length of development, with Freud believing that most development occurs in early childhood and Erikson contending that people continue to develop well into their adult years.

Freud's theory has shaped the field of psychology, both in theory and treatment applications. It has also inspired others in the field to better understand the mind and how it develops, developing their own theories in turn. Without Freud, we might not have talk therapy, which research supports for helping people manage and treat mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Freud's psychosexual theory is hard to test scientifically, leaving questions about its validity. Another concern is that the theory is based on case studies versus research. Some have issues with Freud's theory being focused more on male psychosexual development, offering very little insight into females.

It also refers to homosexual preferences as a deviation of normal psychosexual development, though many psychologists today feel that sexual orientation is more biological in nature.

Hurst LC. What was wrong with Anna O? . J R Soc Med . 1982;75(2):129-131.

Launer J. Anna O and the 'talking cure' . QJM: Int J Med . 2005;98(6):465-466. doi:10.1093/qjmed/hci068

Grubin D.  Young Dr. Freud . Public Broadcasting Service .

McIntosh D. Cathexes and their objects in the thought of Sigmund Freud . J Am Psychoanaly Assoc . 1993;41(3):679-709. doi:10.1177/000306519304100303

American Psychological Association. Death instinct .

Green C. Where did Freud's iceberg metaphor of mind come from? . Hist Psychol . 2019;22(4):369-372. doi:10.1037/hop0000135_b

Lantz S, Ray S. Freud developmental theory . In: StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Eremie MD, Ubulom WJ. Review of psychoanalytic approach to counseling . Int J Innov Psychol Social Develop . 2016;4(2):22-25.

Zhang W, Guo B. Freud's dream interpretation: A different perspective based on the self-organization theory of dreaming . Front Psychol . 2018;9:1553. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01553

Khan M, Haider K. Girls' first love; their fathers: Freudian theory Electra complex . Res J Language Literature Humanities . 2015;2(11):1-4.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Sigmund Freud: Religion .

Monti F, Tonetti L, Ricci Bitti PE. Comparison of cogntive-behavioural therapy and psychodynamic therapy in the treatment of anxiety among university students: an effectiveness study . Brit J Guid Counsel . 2014;42(3):233-244. doi:10.1080/03069885.2013.878018

Gedo JE. The enduring scientific contributions of Sigmund Freud . Perspect Biol Med . 2002;45(2):200-211. doi:10.1353/pbm.2002.0026

Library of Congress. Sigmund Freud: Conflict & Culture .

Thornton SP. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) . Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .

Twomey C, O'Reilly G, Byrne M. Effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety and depression in primary care: a meta-analysis . Fam Pract . 2014;32(1):3-15. doi:10.1093/fampra/cmu060

Freud S. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud . The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Sigmund Freud’s Theories & Contribution to Psychology

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) was the founding father of psychoanalysis , a method for treating mental illness and a theory explaining human behavior.

Freud believed that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality. For example, anxiety originating from traumatic experiences in a person’s past is hidden from consciousness and may cause problems during adulthood (neuroses).

Thus, when we explain our behavior to ourselves or others (conscious mental activity), we rarely give a true account of our motivation. This is not because we are deliberately lying. While human beings are great deceivers of others; they are even more adept at self-deception.

Freud’s life work was dominated by his attempts to penetrate this often subtle and elaborate camouflage that obscures the hidden structure and processes of personality.

His lexicon has become embedded within the vocabulary of Western society. Words he introduced through his theories are now used by everyday people, such as anal (personality), libido, denial, repression, cathartic, Freudian slip , and neurotic.

Who is Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud, born on May 6, 1856, in what is now Příbor, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire), is hailed as the father of psychoanalysis. He was the eldest of eight children in a Jewish family.

Freud initially wanted to become a law professional but later developed an interest in medicine. He entered the University of Vienna in 1873, graduating with an MD in 1881. His primary interests included neurology and neuropathology. He was particularly interested in the condition of hysteria and its psychological causes.

In 1885, Freud received a grant to study with Jean-Martin Charcot, a renowned neurologist who used hypnosis to treat women suffering from what was then called “hysteria.” This experience sparked Freud’s interest in the unconscious mind, a theme that would recur throughout his career.

In 1886, Freud returned to Vienna, married Martha Bernays, and set up a private practice to treat nervous disorders. His work during this time led to his revolutionary concepts of the human mind and the development of the psychoanalytic method.

Freud introduced several influential concepts, including the Oedipus complex, dream analysis, and the structural model of the psyche divided into the id, ego, and superego. He published numerous works throughout his career, the most notable being “ The Interpretation of Dreams ” (1900), “ The Psychopathology of Everyday Life ” (1901), and “ Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality ” (1905).

Despite controversy and opposition, Freud continued to develop his theories and expand the field of psychoanalysis. He was deeply affected by the outbreak of World War I and later by the rise of the Nazis in Germany. In 1938, due to the Nazi threat, he emigrated to London with his wife and youngest daughter.

Freud died in London on September 23, 1939, but his influence on psychology, literature, and culture remains profound and pervasive.

He radically changed our understanding of the human mind, emphasizing the power of unconscious processes and pioneering therapeutic techniques that continue to be used today.

Sigmund Freud’s Theories & Contributions

Psychoanalytic Theory : Freud is best known for developing psychoanalysis , a therapeutic technique for treating mental health disorders by exploring unconscious thoughts and feelings.

Unconscious Mind : Freud (1900, 1905) developed a topographical model of the mind, describing the features of the mind’s structure and function. Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind.

The id, ego, and superego have most commonly been conceptualized as three essential parts of the human personality.

Psychosexual Development : Freud’s controversial theory of psychosexual development suggests that early childhood experiences and stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital) shape our adult personality and behavior.

His theory of psychosexual stages of development is predicated by the concept that childhood experiences create the adult personality and that problems in early life would come back to haunt the individual as a mental illness.

Dream Analysis : Freud believed dreams were a window into the unconscious mind and developed methods for analyzing dream content for repressed thoughts and desires.

Dreams represent unfulfilled wishes from the id, trying to break through to the conscious. But because these desires are often unacceptable, they are disguised or censored using such defenses as symbolism.

Freud believed that by undoing the dreamwork , the analyst could study the manifest content (what they dreamt) and interpret the latent content ( what it meant) by understanding the symbols.

Defense Mechanisms : Freud proposed several defense mechanisms , like repression and projection, which the ego employs to handle the tension and conflicts among the id, superego, and the demands of reality.

Sigmund Freud’s Patients

Sigmund Freud’s clinical work with several patients led to major breakthroughs in psychoanalysis and a deeper understanding of the human mind. Here are summaries of some of his most notable cases:

Anna O. (Bertha Pappenheim) : Known as the ‘birth of psychoanalysis,’ Anna O . was a patient of Freud’s colleague Josef Breuer. However, her case heavily influenced Freud’s thinking.

She suffered from various symptoms, including hallucinations and paralysis, which Freud interpreted as signs of hysteria caused by repressed traumatic memories. The “talking cure” method with Anna O. would later evolve into Freudian psychoanalysis.

Dora (Ida Bauer) : Dora, a pseudonym Freud used, was a teenager suffering from what he diagnosed as hysteria. Her symptoms included aphonia (loss of voice) and a cough.

Freud suggested her issues were due to suppressed sexual desires, particularly those resulting from a complex series of relationships in her family. The Dora case is famous for the subject’s abrupt termination of therapy, and for the criticisms Freud received regarding his handling of the case.

Little Hans (Herbert Graf) : Little Hans , a five-year-old boy, feared horses. Freud never met Hans but used information from the boy’s father to diagnose him.

He proposed that Little Hans’ horse phobia was symbolic of a deeper fear related to the Oedipus Complex – unconscious feelings of affection for his mother and rivalry with his father. The case of Little Hans is often used as an example of Freud’s theory of the Oedipal Complex in children.

Rat Man (Ernst Lanzer) : Rat Man came to Freud suffering from obsessive thoughts and fears related to rats, a condition known as obsessional neurosis.

Freud connected his symptoms to suppressed guilt and repressed sexual desires. The treatment of Rat Man further expanded Freud’s work on understanding the role of internal conflicts and unconscious processes in mental health disorders.

Wolf Man (Sergei Pankejeff) : Wolf Man was a wealthy Russian aristocrat who came to Freud with various symptoms, including a recurring dream about wolves.

Freud’s analysis, focusing on childhood memories and dreams, led him to identify the presence of repressed memories and the influence of the Oedipus Complex . Wolf Man’s treatment is often considered one of Freud’s most significant and controversial cases.

In the highly repressive “Victorian” society in which Freud lived and worked, women, in particular, were forced to repress their sexual needs. In many cases, the result was some form of neurotic illness.

Freud sought to understand the nature and variety of these illnesses by retracing the sexual history of his patients. This was not primarily an investigation of sexual experiences as such. Far more important were the patient’s wishes and desires, their experience of love, hate, shame, guilt, and fear – and how they handled these powerful emotions.

Freud’s Followers

Freud attracted many followers, who formed a famous group in 1902 called the “Psychological Wednesday Society.” The group met every Wednesday in Freud’s waiting room.

As the organization grew, Freud established an inner circle of devoted followers, the so-called “Committee” (including Sàndor Ferenczi, and Hanns Sachs (standing) Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Max Eitingon, and Ernest Jones).

At the beginning of 1908, the committee had 22 members and was renamed the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.

Neo-Freudians

The term “neo-Freudians” refers to psychologists who were initially followers of Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) but later developed their own theories, often modifying or challenging Freud’s ideas.

Here are summaries of some of the most notable neo-Freudians:

Carl Jung : Jung (1875 – 1961) was a close associate of Freud but split due to theoretical disagreements. He developed the concept of analytical psychology, emphasizing the collective unconscious, which houses universal symbols or archetypes shared by all human beings. He also introduced the idea of introversion and extraversion.

Alfred Adler : Adler (1870 – 1937) was another early follower of Freud who broke away due to differing views. He developed the school of individual psychology, highlighting the role of feelings of inferiority and the striving for superiority or success in shaping human behavior. He also emphasized the importance of social context and community.

• Otto Rank : Rank (1884 – 1939)  was an early collaborator with Freud and played a significant role in the development of psychoanalysis. He proposed the “trauma of birth” as a critical event influencing the psyche. Later, he shifted focus to the relationship between therapist and client, influencing the development of humanistic therapies.

Karen Horney : Horney (1885 – 1952) challenged Freud’s views on women, arguing against the concept of “penis envy.” She suggested that social and cultural factors significantly influence personality development and mental health. Her concept of ‘basic anxiety’ centered on feelings of helplessness and insecurity in childhood, shaping adult behavior.

• Harry Stack Sullivan : Sullivan (1892 – 1949) developed interpersonal psychoanalysis, emphasizing the role of interpersonal relationships and social experiences in personality development and mental disorders. He proposed the concept of the “self-system” formed through experiences of approval and disapproval during childhood.

Melanie Klein : Klein (1882 – 1960), a prominent psychoanalyst, is considered a neo-Freudian due to her development of object relations theory, which expanded on Freud’s ideas. She emphasized the significance of early childhood experiences and the role of the mother-child relationship in psychological development.

• Anna Freud : Freud’s youngest daughter significantly contributed to psychoanalysis, particularly in child psychology. Anna Freud (1895 – 1982) expanded on her father’s work, emphasizing the importance of ego defenses in managing conflict and preserving mental health.

Wilhelm Reich : Reich (1897 – 1957), once a student of Freud, diverged by focusing on bodily experiences and sexual repression, developing the theory of orgone energy. His emphasis on societal influence and body-oriented therapy made him a significant neo-Freudian figure.

• Erich Fromm : Fromm (1900-1980) was a German-American psychoanalyst associated with the Frankfurt School, who emphasized culture’s role in developing personality. He advocated psychoanalysis as a tool for curing cultural problems and thus reducing mental illness.

Erik Erikson : Erikson (1902 – 1994)  extended Freud’s theory of psychosexual development by adding social and cultural aspects and proposing a lifespan development model. His theory of psychosocial development outlined eight stages, each marked by a specific crisis to resolve, that shape an individual’s identity and relationships.

Critical Evaluation

Does evidence support Freudian psychology? Freud’s theory is good at explaining but not predicting behavior (which is one of the goals of science ).

For this reason, Freud’s theory is unfalsifiable – it can neither be proved true or refuted. For example, the unconscious mind is difficult to test and measure objectively. Overall, Freud’s theory is highly unscientific.

Despite the skepticism of the unconscious mind, cognitive psychology has identified unconscious processes, such as procedural memory (Tulving, 1972), automatic processing (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999; Stroop, 1935), and social psychology has shown the importance of implicit processing (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Such empirical findings have demonstrated the role of unconscious processes in human behavior.

However, most evidence for Freud’s theories is from an unrepresentative sample. He mostly studied himself, his patients, and only one child (e.g., Little Hans ).

The main problem here is that the case studies are based on studying one person in detail, and regarding Freud, the individuals in question are most often middle-aged women from Vienna (i.e., his patients).

This makes generalizations to the wider population (e.g., the whole world) difficult. However, Freud thought this unimportant, believing in only a qualitative difference between people.

Freud may also have shown research bias in his interpretations – he may have only paid attention to information that supported his theories, and ignored information and other explanations that did not fit them.

However, Fisher & Greenberg (1996) argue that Freud’s theory should be evaluated in terms of specific hypotheses rather than a whole. They concluded that there is evidence to support Freud’s concepts of oral and anal personalities and some aspects of his ideas on depression and paranoia.

They found little evidence of the Oedipal conflict and no support for Freud’s views on women’s sexuality and how their development differs from men’.

Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American psychologist, 54 (7), 462.

Breuer, J., & Freud, S. (1895). Studies on hysteria . Standard Edition 2: London.

Fisher, S., & Greenberg, R. P. (1996). Freud scientifically reappraised: Testing the theories and therapy . John Wiley & Sons.

Freud, S. (1894). The neuro-psychoses of defence . SE, 3: 41-61.

Freud, S. (1896). Further remarks on the neuro-psychoses of defence . SE, 3: 157-185.

Freud, S. (1900). The interpretation of dreams . S.E., 4-5.

Freud, S. (1901). The psychopathology of everyday life. SE, 6.  London: Hogarth .

Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality.  Se ,  7 , 125-243.

Freud, S. (1915). The unconscious . SE, 14: 159-204.

Freud, S. (1920) . Beyond the pleasure principle . SE, 18: 1-64.

Freud, S. (1923). The ego and the id . SE, 19: 1-66.

Freud, S. (1925). Negation. Standard edition , 19, 235-239.

Freud, S. (1961). The resistances to psycho-analysis. In T he Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIX (1923-1925): The Ego and the Id and other works (pp. 211-224).

Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological review, 102 (1), 4.

Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of experimental psychology, 18 (6), 643.

Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving & W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of Memory , (pp. 381–403). New York: Academic Press.

What is Freud most famous for?

Why is freud so criticized, what did sigmund freud do.

His conceptualization of the mind’s structure (id, ego, superego), his theories of psychosexual development, and his exploration of defense mechanisms revolutionized our understanding of human psychology.

Despite controversies and criticisms, Freud’s theories have fundamentally shaped the field of psychology and the way we perceive the human mind.

What is the Freudian revolution’s impact on society?

Related Articles

Freudian Psychology

Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis

Soft Determinism In Psychology

Branches of Psychology

Sigmund Freud Dream Theory

Anna O (Bertha Pappenheim): Life & Impact on Psychology

Freudian Psychology , Understanding Therapy

What Is Transference In Psychology?

Understanding Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

This essay about Freud’s theory of psychosexual development explains how personality evolves from infancy to adulthood through five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Each stage is characterized by different erogenous zones and experiences, influencing later behavior and personality. Successful navigation through these stages leads to a healthy personality, while fixation can result in specific adult behaviors and traits.

How it works

Freud Sigmund, one opens a person in psychology, put a theory psychosexual display, that remains a basic concept in a psychoanalytic theory. Stadiums Freud psychosexual chart display, how a person evolves from a baby despite adult life, offers, it early experience perceptibly bring up life psychological and sexual type. His theory, although debatable and often debated, assures a lens, through that, to understand a display and relation man.

Freud offered stadiums psychosexual display five : verbal exam, anal, phallic, time expectation, and genital stadiums.

Characterize every stadium erogenous zones, that center psychosexual energy child, or genital appetence. Fruitfully, navigating these results stadiums in healthy appears, while fixing on one does not import what stadium can lead despite the squared beams specific person and relation in adult life.

Stadium, verbal the first stadium, espaces from birth to the joint 18 mois. In one flow from this period, fountain baby co-operation of initial letter executes he through a mouth. Sucks, high, and suckling are critical activities, because mouth is primary erogenous zone. Freud weighed, that it expert in one flow from a verbal stadium perceptibly influential posterior relation. For example, if si necessities bébé verbal exams corresponding connected two scraps, they, at a case, grow verbal later fixing in life, so as for example excessive food, smokes, or custom to bite nails. From other side, petting, at a case, led despite dependence and passivity.

Following verbal stadium is an anal stadium, that executes he approximately from 18 mois to three years. In one flow from this stadium, center prosperity is laid out from a mouth despite an ass hole, private through control and registration feces. Cabinet, educating becomes the central producing, declares, that fight the first child with social asks and concept control. Freud theorized, that, how parents manage cabinet, educating can lead despite results other person. Cabinet strict educating, punitive, at a case, led despite a person, characterizes an obsession, hardness, and meticulousness anal-retentive. From other side, the lenient educating was able to lead despite anal-expulsive appears, dirty remark, disorganizes, and appeal.

Third stadium, phallic stadium, executes he between three ages and six years. In one flow from this period, appetence child genital concentrates he on a genital area, and begin them recognize distinctions between people and women. Freud gave sediment ?omplex complex in one flow from this stadium, concept, where boys experience sexual unconscious desires their mother and weigh their father so as competitor. So, complex Electra directs he despite girls, including unconscious desires their father and rivalry with their mother. Success resolution these complexes, through identifies with a parent same-sex, brings the done sexual equality over despite a display. Fixing on this stadium, however, can lead despite sexual dysfunctions and terms with parents and persons difficult delegations.

Cite this page

Understanding Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development. (2024, May 28). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-freuds-stages-of-psychosexual-development/

"Understanding Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development." PapersOwl.com , 28 May 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-freuds-stages-of-psychosexual-development/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Understanding Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-freuds-stages-of-psychosexual-development/ [Accessed: 31 May. 2024]

"Understanding Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development." PapersOwl.com, May 28, 2024. Accessed May 31, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-freuds-stages-of-psychosexual-development/

"Understanding Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development," PapersOwl.com , 28-May-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-freuds-stages-of-psychosexual-development/. [Accessed: 31-May-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Understanding Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-freuds-stages-of-psychosexual-development/ [Accessed: 31-May-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• My Account Login
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Open access
• Published: 17 October 2023

The impact of founder personalities on startup success

• Paul X. McCarthy 1 , 2 ,
• Xian Gong 3 ,
• Fabian Braesemann 4 , 5 ,
• Fabian Stephany 4 , 5 ,
• Marian-Andrei Rizoiu 3 &
• Margaret L. Kern 6  

Scientific Reports volume  13 , Article number:  17200 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

60k Accesses

2 Citations

305 Altmetric

Metrics details

• Human behaviour
• Information technology

An Author Correction to this article was published on 07 May 2024

This article has been updated

Startup companies solve many of today’s most challenging problems, such as the decarbonisation of the economy or the development of novel life-saving vaccines. Startups are a vital source of innovation, yet the most innovative are also the least likely to survive. The probability of success of startups has been shown to relate to several firm-level factors such as industry, location and the economy of the day. Still, attention has increasingly considered internal factors relating to the firm’s founding team, including their previous experiences and failures, their centrality in a global network of other founders and investors, as well as the team’s size. The effects of founders’ personalities on the success of new ventures are, however, mainly unknown. Here, we show that founder personality traits are a significant feature of a firm’s ultimate success. We draw upon detailed data about the success of a large-scale global sample of startups (n = 21,187). We find that the Big Five personality traits of startup founders across 30 dimensions significantly differ from that of the population at large. Key personality facets that distinguish successful entrepreneurs include a preference for variety, novelty and starting new things (openness to adventure), like being the centre of attention (lower levels of modesty) and being exuberant (higher activity levels). We do not find one ’Founder-type’ personality; instead, six different personality types appear. Our results also demonstrate the benefits of larger, personality-diverse teams in startups, which show an increased likelihood of success. The findings emphasise the role of the diversity of personality types as a novel dimension of team diversity that influences performance and success.

Similar content being viewed by others

Predicting success in the worldwide start-up network

The personality traits of self-made and inherited millionaires

The nexus of top executives’ attributes, firm strategies, and outcomes: Large firms versus SMEs

Introduction.

The success of startups is vital to economic growth and renewal, with a small number of young, high-growth firms creating a disproportionately large share of all new jobs 1 , 2 . Startups create jobs and drive economic growth, and they are also an essential vehicle for solving some of society’s most pressing challenges.

As a poignant example, six centuries ago, the German city of Mainz was abuzz as the birthplace of the world’s first moveable-type press created by Johannes Gutenberg. However, in the early part of this century, it faced several economic challenges, including rising unemployment and a significant and growing municipal debt. Then in 2008, two Turkish immigrants formed the company BioNTech in Mainz with another university research colleague. Together they pioneered new mRNA-based technologies. In 2020, BioNTech partnered with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to create one of only a handful of vaccines worldwide for Covid-19, saving an estimated six million lives 3 . The economic benefit to Europe and, in particular, the German city where the vaccine was developed has been significant, with windfall tax receipts to the government clearing Mainz’s €1.3bn debt and enabling tax rates to be reduced, attracting other businesses to the region as well as inspiring a whole new generation of startups 4 .

While stories such as the success of BioNTech are often retold and remembered, their success is the exception rather than the rule. The overwhelming majority of startups ultimately fail. One study of 775 startups in Canada that successfully attracted external investment found only 35% were still operating seven years later 5 .

But what determines the success of these ‘lucky few’? When assessing the success factors of startups, especially in the early-stage unproven phase, venture capitalists and other investors offer valuable insights. Three different schools of thought characterise their perspectives: first, supply-side or product investors : those who prioritise investing in firms they consider to have novel and superior products and services, investing in companies with intellectual property such as patents and trademarks. Secondly, demand-side or market-based investors : those who prioritise investing in areas of highest market interest, such as in hot areas of technology like quantum computing or recurrent or emerging large-scale social and economic challenges such as the decarbonisation of the economy. Thirdly, talent investors : those who prioritise the foundation team above the startup’s initial products or what industry or problem it is looking to address.

Investors who adopt the third perspective and prioritise talent often recognise that a good team can overcome many challenges in the lead-up to product-market fit. And while the initial products of a startup may or may not work a successful and well-functioning team has the potential to pivot to new markets and new products, even if the initial ones prove untenable. Not surprisingly, an industry ‘autopsy’ into 101 tech startup failures found 23% were due to not having the right team—the number three cause of failure ahead of running out of cash or not having a product that meets the market need 6 .

Accordingly, early entrepreneurship research was focused on the personality of founders, but the focus shifted away in the mid-1980s onwards towards more environmental factors such as venture capital financing 7 , 8 , 9 , networks 10 , location 11 and due to a range of issues and challenges identified with the early entrepreneurship personality research 12 , 13 . At the turn of the 21st century, some scholars began exploring ways to combine context and personality and reconcile entrepreneurs’ individual traits with features of their environment. In her influential work ’The Sociology of Entrepreneurship’, Patricia H. Thornton 14 discusses two perspectives on entrepreneurship: the supply-side perspective (personality theory) and the demand-side perspective (environmental approach). The supply-side perspective focuses on the individual traits of entrepreneurs. In contrast, the demand-side perspective focuses on the context in which entrepreneurship occurs, with factors such as finance, industry and geography each playing their part. In the past two decades, there has been a revival of interest and research that explores how entrepreneurs’ personality relates to the success of their ventures. This new and growing body of research includes several reviews and meta-studies, which show that personality traits play an important role in both career success and entrepreneurship 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , that there is heterogeneity in definitions and samples used in research on entrepreneurship 16 , 18 , and that founder personality plays an important role in overall startup outcomes 17 , 19 .

Motivated by the pivotal role of the personality of founders on startup success outlined in these recent contributions, we investigate two main research questions:

Which personality features characterise founders?

Do their personalities, particularly the diversity of personality types in founder teams, play a role in startup success?

We aim to understand whether certain founder personalities and their combinations relate to startup success, defined as whether their company has been acquired, acquired another company or listed on a public stock exchange. For the quantitative analysis, we draw on a previously published methodology 20 , which matches people to their ‘ideal’ jobs based on social media-inferred personality traits.

We find that personality traits matter for startup success. In addition to firm-level factors of location, industry and company age, we show that founders’ specific Big Five personality traits, such as adventurousness and openness, are significantly more widespread among successful startups. As we find that companies with multi-founder teams are more likely to succeed, we cluster founders in six different and distinct personality groups to underline the relevance of the complementarity in personality traits among founder teams. Startups with diverse and specific combinations of founder types (e. g., an adventurous ‘Leader’, a conscientious ‘Accomplisher’, and an extroverted ‘Developer’) have significantly higher odds of success.

We organise the rest of this paper as follows. In the Section " Results ", we introduce the data used and the methods applied to relate founders’ psychological traits with their startups’ success. We introduce the natural language processing method to derive individual and team personality characteristics and the clustering technique to identify personality groups. Then, we present the result for multi-variate regression analysis that allows us to relate firm success with external and personality features. Subsequently, the Section " Discussion " mentions limitations and opportunities for future research in this domain. In the Section " Methods ", we describe the data, the variables in use, and the clustering in greater detail. Robustness checks and additional analyses can be found in the Supplementary Information.

Our analysis relies on two datasets. We infer individual personality facets via a previously published methodology 20 from Twitter user profiles. Here, we restrict our analysis to founders with a Crunchbase profile. Crunchbase is the world’s largest directory on startups. It provides information about more than one million companies, primarily focused on funding and investors. A company’s public Crunchbase profile can be considered a digital business card of an early-stage venture. As such, the founding teams tend to provide information about themselves, including their educational background or a link to their Twitter account.

We infer the personality profiles of the founding teams of early-stage ventures from their publicly available Twitter profiles, using the methodology described by Kern et al. 20 . Then, we correlate this information to data from Crunchbase to determine whether particular combinations of personality traits correspond to the success of early-stage ventures. The final dataset used in the success prediction model contains n = 21,187 startup companies (for more details on the data see the Methods section and SI section  A.5 ).

Revisions of Crunchbase as a data source for investigations on a firm and industry level confirm the platform to be a useful and valuable source of data for startups research, as comparisons with other sources at micro-level, e.g., VentureXpert or PwC, also suggest that the platform’s coverage is very comprehensive, especially for start-ups located in the United States 21 . Moreover, aggregate statistics on funding rounds by country and year are quite similar to those produced with other established sources, going to validate the use of Crunchbase as a reliable source in terms of coverage of funded ventures. For instance, Crunchbase covers about the same number of investment rounds in the analogous sectors as collected by the National Venture Capital Association 22 . However, we acknowledge that the data source might suffer from registration latency (a certain delay between the foundation of the company and its actual registration on Crunchbase) and success bias in company status (the likeliness that failed companies decide to delete their profile from the database).

The definition of startup success

The success of startups is uncertain, dependent on many factors and can be measured in various ways. Due to the likelihood of failure in startups, some large-scale studies have looked at which features predict startup survival rates 23 , and others focus on fundraising from external investors at various stages 24 . Success for startups can be measured in multiple ways, such as the amount of external investment attracted, the number of new products shipped or the annual growth in revenue. But sometimes external investments are misguided, revenue growth can be short-lived, and new products may fail to find traction.

Success in a startup is typically staged and can appear in different forms and times. For example, a startup may be seen to be successful when it finds a clear solution to a widely recognised problem, such as developing a successful vaccine. On the other hand, it could be achieving some measure of commercial success, such as rapidly accelerating sales or becoming profitable or at least cash positive. Or it could be reaching an exit for foundation investors via a trade sale, acquisition or listing of its shares for sale on a public stock exchange via an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

For our study, we focused on the startup’s extrinsic success rather than the founders’ intrinsic success per se, as its more visible, objective and measurable. A frequently considered measure of success is the attraction of external investment by venture capitalists 25 . However, this is not in and of itself a good measure of clear, incontrovertible success, particularly for early-stage ventures. This is because it reflects investors’ expectations of a startup’s success potential rather than actual business success. Similarly, we considered other measures like revenue growth 26 , liquidity events 27 , 28 , 29 , profitability 30 and social impact 31 , all of which have benefits as they capture incremental success, but each also comes with operational measurement challenges.

Therefore, we apply the success definition initially introduced by Bonaventura et al. 32 , namely that a startup is acquired, acquires another company or has an initial public offering (IPO). We consider any of these major capital liquidation events as a clear threshold signal that the company has matured from an early-stage venture to becoming or is on its way to becoming a mature company with clear and often significant business growth prospects. Together these three major liquidity events capture the primary forms of exit for external investors (an acquisition or trade sale and an IPO). For companies with a longer autonomous growth runway, acquiring another company marks a similar milestone of scale, maturity and capability.

Using multifactor analysis and a binary classification prediction model of startup success, we looked at many variables together and their relative influence on the probability of the success of startups. We looked at seven categories of factors through three lenses of firm-level factors: (1) location, (2) industry, (3) age of the startup; founder-level factors: (4) number of founders, (5) gender of founders, (6) personality characteristics of founders and; lastly team-level factors: (7) founder-team personality combinations. The model performance and relative impacts on the probability of startup success of each of these categories of founders are illustrated in more detail in section  A.6 of the Supplementary Information (in particular Extended Data Fig.  19 and Extended Data Fig.  20 ). In total, we considered over three hundred variables (n = 323) and their relative significant associations with success.

The personality of founders

Besides product-market, industry, and firm-level factors (see SI section  A.1 ), research suggests that the personalities of founders play a crucial role in startup success 19 . Therefore, we examine the personality characteristics of individual startup founders and teams of founders in relationship to their firm’s success by applying the success definition used by Bonaventura et al. 32 .

Employing established methods 33 , 34 , 35 , we inferred the personality traits across 30 dimensions (Big Five facets) of a large global sample of startup founders. The startup founders cohort was created from a subset of founders from the global startup industry directory Crunchbase, who are also active on the social media platform Twitter.

To measure the personality of the founders, we used the Big Five, a popular model of personality which includes five core traits: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional stability. Each of these traits can be further broken down into thirty distinct facets. Studies have found that the Big Five predict meaningful life outcomes, such as physical and mental health, longevity, social relationships, health-related behaviours, antisocial behaviour, and social contribution, at levels on par with intelligence and socioeconomic status 36 Using machine learning to infer personality traits by analysing the use of language and activity on social media has been shown to be more accurate than predictions of coworkers, friends and family and similar in accuracy to the judgement of spouses 37 . Further, as other research has shown, we assume that personality traits remain stable in adulthood even through significant life events 38 , 39 , 40 . Personality traits have been shown to emerge continuously from those already evident in adolescence 41 and are not significantly influenced by external life events such as becoming divorced or unemployed 42 . This suggests that the direction of any measurable effect goes from founder personalities to startup success and not vice versa.

As a first investigation to what extent personality traits might relate to entrepreneurship, we use the personality characteristics of individuals to predict whether they were an entrepreneur or an employee. We trained and tested a machine-learning random forest classifier to distinguish and classify entrepreneurs from employees and vice-versa using inferred personality vectors alone. As a result, we found we could correctly predict entrepreneurs with 77% accuracy and employees with 88% accuracy (Fig.  1 A). Thus, based on personality information alone, we correctly predict all unseen new samples with 82.5% accuracy (See SI section  A.2 for more details on this analysis, the classification modelling and prediction accuracy).

We explored in greater detail which personality features are most prominent among entrepreneurs. We found that the subdomain or facet of Adventurousness within the Big Five Domain of Openness was significant and had the largest effect size. The facet of Modesty within the Big Five Domain of Agreeableness and Activity Level within the Big Five Domain of Extraversion was the subsequent most considerable effect (Fig.  1 B). Adventurousness in the Big Five framework is defined as the preference for variety, novelty and starting new things—which are consistent with the role of a startup founder whose role, especially in the early life of the company, is to explore things that do not scale easily 43 and is about developing and testing new products, services and business models with the market.

Once we derived and tested the Big Five personality features for each entrepreneur in our data set, we examined whether there is evidence indicating that startup founders naturally cluster according to their personality features using a Hopkins test (see Extended Data Figure  6 ). We discovered clear clustering tendencies in the data compared with other renowned reference data sets known to have clusters. Then, once we established the founder data clusters, we used agglomerative hierarchical clustering. This ‘bottom-up’ clustering technique initially treats each observation as an individual cluster. Then it merges them to create a hierarchy of possible cluster schemes with differing numbers of groups (See Extended Data Fig.  7 ). And lastly, we identified the optimum number of clusters based on the outcome of four different clustering performance measurements: Davies-Bouldin Index, Silhouette coefficients, Calinski-Harabas Index and Dunn Index (see Extended Data Figure  8 ). We find that the optimum number of clusters of startup founders based on their personality features is six (labelled #0 through to #5), as shown in Fig.  1 C.

To better understand the context of different founder types, we positioned each of the six types of founders within an occupation-personality matrix established from previous research 44 . This research showed that ‘each job has its own personality’ using a substantial sample of employees across various jobs. Utilising the methodology employed in this study, we assigned labels to the cluster names #0 to #5, which correspond to the identified occupation tribes that best describe the personality facets represented by the clusters (see Extended Data Fig.  9 for an overview of these tribes, as identified by McCarthy et al. 44 ).

Utilising this approach, we identify three ’purebred’ clusters: #0, #2 and #5, whose members are dominated by a single tribe (larger than 60% of all individuals in each cluster are characterised by one tribe). Thus, these clusters represent and share personality attributes of these previously identified occupation-personality tribes 44 , which have the following known distinctive personality attributes (see also Table  1 ):

Accomplishers (#0) —Organised & outgoing. confident, down-to-earth, content, accommodating, mild-tempered & self-assured.

Leaders (#2) —Adventurous, persistent, dispassionate, assertive, self-controlled, calm under pressure, philosophical, excitement-seeking & confident.

Fighters (#5) —Spontaneous and impulsive, tough, sceptical, and uncompromising.

We labelled these clusters with the tribe names, acknowledging that labels are somewhat arbitrary, based on our best interpretation of the data (See SI section  A.3 for more details).

For the remaining three clusters #1, #3 and #4, we can see they are ‘hybrids’, meaning that the founders within them come from a mix of different tribes, with no one tribe representing more than 50% of the members of that cluster. However, the tribes with the largest share were noted as #1 Experts/Engineers, #3 Fighters, and #4 Operators.

To label these three hybrid clusters, we examined the closest occupations to the median personality features of each cluster. We selected a name that reflected the common themes of these occupations, namely:

Experts/Engineers (#1) as the closest roles included Materials Engineers and Chemical Engineers. This is consistent with this cluster’s personality footprint, which is highest in openness in the facets of imagination and intellect.

Developers (#3) as the closest roles include Application Developers and related technology roles such as Business Systems Analysts and Product Managers.

Operators (#4) as the closest roles include service, maintenance and operations functions, including Bicycle Mechanic, Mechanic and Service Manager. This is also consistent with one of the key personality traits of high conscientiousness in the facet of orderliness and high agreeableness in the facet of humility for founders in this cluster.

Founder-Level Factors of Startup Success. ( A ), Successful entrepreneurs differ from successful employees. They can be accurately distinguished using a classifier with personality information alone. ( B ), Successful entrepreneurs have different Big Five facet distributions, especially on adventurousness, modesty and activity level. ( C ), Founders come in six different types: Fighters, Operators, Accomplishers, Leaders, Engineers and Developers (FOALED) ( D ), Each founder Personality-Type has its distinct facet.

Together, these six different types of startup founders (Fig.  1 C) represent a framework we call the FOALED model of founder types—an acronym of Fighters, Operators, Accomplishers, Leaders, Engineers and D evelopers.

Each founder’s personality type has its distinct facet footprint (for more details, see Extended Data Figure  10 in SI section  A.3 ). Also, we observe a central core of correlated features that are high for all types of entrepreneurs, including intellect, adventurousness and activity level (Fig.  1 D).To test the robustness of the clustering of the personality facets, we compare the mean scores of the individual facets per cluster with a 20-fold resampling of the data and find that the clusters are, overall, largely robust against resampling (see Extended Data Figure  11 in SI section  A.3 for more details).

We also find that the clusters accord with the distribution of founders’ roles in their startups. For example, Accomplishers are often Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, or Chief Operating Officers, while Fighters tend to be Chief Technical Officers, Chief Product Officers, or Chief Commercial Officers (see Extended Data Fig.  12 in SI section  A.4 for more details).

The ensemble theory of success

While founders’ individual personality traits, such as Adventurousness or Openness, show to be related to their firms’ success, we also hypothesise that the combination, or ensemble, of personality characteristics of a founding team impacts the chances of success. The logic behind this reasoning is complementarity, which is proposed by contemporary research on the functional roles of founder teams. Examples of these clear functional roles have evolved in established industries such as film and television, construction, and advertising 45 . When we subsequently explored the combinations of personality types among founders and their relationship to the probability of startup success, adjusted for a range of other factors in a multi-factorial analysis, we found significantly increased chances of success for mixed foundation teams:

Initially, we find that firms with multiple founders are more likely to succeed, as illustrated in Fig.  2 A, which shows firms with three or more founders are more than twice as likely to succeed than solo-founded startups. This finding is consistent with investors’ advice to founders and previous studies 46 . We also noted that some personality types of founders increase the probability of success more than others, as shown in SI section  A.6 (Extended Data Figures  16 and 17 ). Also, we note that gender differences play out in the distribution of personality facets: successful female founders and successful male founders show facet scores that are more similar to each other than are non-successful female founders to non-successful male founders (see Extended Data Figure  18 ).

The Ensemble Theory of Team-Level Factors of Startup Success. ( A ) Having a larger founder team elevates the chances of success. This can be due to multiple reasons, e.g., a more extensive network or knowledge base but also personality diversity. ( B ) We show that joint personality combinations of founders are significantly related to higher chances of success. This is because it takes more than one founder to cover all beneficial personality traits that ‘breed’ success. ( C ) In our multifactor model, we show that firms with diverse and specific combinations of types of founders have significantly higher odds of success.

Access to more extensive networks and capital could explain the benefits of having more founders. Still, as we find here, it also offers a greater diversity of combined personalities, naturally providing a broader range of maximum traits. So, for example, one founder may be more open and adventurous, and another could be highly agreeable and trustworthy, thus, potentially complementing each other’s particular strengths associated with startup success.

The benefits of larger and more personality-diverse foundation teams can be seen in the apparent differences between successful and unsuccessful firms based on their combined Big Five personality team footprints, as illustrated in Fig.  2 B. Here, maximum values for each Big Five trait of a startup’s co-founders are mapped; stratified by successful and non-successful companies. Founder teams of successful startups tend to score higher on Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness.

When examining the combinations of founders with different personality types, we find that some ensembles of personalities were significantly correlated with greater chances of startup success—while controlling for other variables in the model—as shown in Fig.  2 C (for more details on the modelling, the predictive performance and the coefficient estimates of the final model, see Extended Data Figures  19 , 20 , and 21 in SI section  A.6 ).

Three combinations of trio-founder companies were more than twice as likely to succeed than other combinations, namely teams with (1) a Leader and two Developers , (2) an Operator and two Developers , and (3) an Expert/Engineer , Leader and Developer . To illustrate the potential mechanisms on how personality traits might influence the success of startups, we provide some examples of well-known, successful startup founders and their characteristic personality traits in Extended Data Figure  22 .

Startups are one of the key mechanisms for brilliant ideas to become solutions to some of the world’s most challenging economic and social problems. Examples include the Google search algorithm, disability technology startup Fingerwork’s touchscreen technology that became the basis of the Apple iPhone, or the Biontech mRNA technology that powered Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

We have shown that founders’ personalities and the combination of personalities in the founding team of a startup have a material and significant impact on its likelihood of success. We have also shown that successful startup founders’ personality traits are significantly different from those of successful employees—so much so that a simple predictor can be trained to distinguish between employees and entrepreneurs with more than 80% accuracy using personality trait data alone.

Just as occupation-personality maps derived from data can provide career guidance tools, so too can data on successful entrepreneurs’ personality traits help people decide whether becoming a founder may be a good choice for them.

We have learnt through this research that there is not one type of ideal ’entrepreneurial’ personality but six different types. Many successful startups have multiple co-founders with a combination of these different personality types.

To a large extent, founding a startup is a team sport; therefore, diversity and complementarity of personalities matter in the foundation team. It has an outsized impact on the company’s likelihood of success. While all startups are high risk, the risk becomes lower with more founders, particularly if they have distinct personality traits.

Our work demonstrates the benefits of personality diversity among the founding team of startups. Greater awareness of this novel form of diversity may help create more resilient startups capable of more significant innovation and impact.

The data-driven research approach presented here comes with certain methodological limitations. The principal data sources of this study—Crunchbase and Twitter—are extensive and comprehensive, but there are characterised by some known and likely sample biases.

Crunchbase is the principal public chronicle of venture capital funding. So, there is some likely sample bias toward: (1) Startup companies that are funded externally: self-funded or bootstrapped companies are less likely to be represented in Crunchbase; (2) technology companies, as that is Crunchbase’s roots; (3) multi-founder companies; (4) male founders: while the representation of female founders is now double that of the mid-2000s, women still represent less than 25% of the sample; (5) companies that succeed: companies that fail, especially those that fail early, are likely to be less represented in the data.

Samples were also limited to those founders who are active on Twitter, which adds additional selection biases. For example, Twitter users typically are younger, more educated and have a higher median income 47 . Another limitation of our approach is the potentially biased presentation of a person’s digital identity on social media, which is the basis for identifying personality traits. For example, recent research suggests that the language and emotional tone used by entrepreneurs in social media can be affected by events such as business failure 48 , which might complicate the personality trait inference.

In addition to sampling biases within the data, there are also significant historical biases in startup culture. For many aspects of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, women, for example, are at a disadvantage 49 . Male-founded companies have historically dominated most startup ecosystems worldwide, representing the majority of founders and the overwhelming majority of venture capital investors. As a result, startups with women have historically attracted significantly fewer funds 50 , in part due to the male bias among venture investors, although this is now changing, albeit slowly 51 .

The research presented here provides quantitative evidence for the relevance of personality types and the diversity of personalities in startups. At the same time, it brings up other questions on how personality traits are related to other factors associated with success, such as:

Will the recent growing focus on promoting and investing in female founders change the nature, composition and dynamics of startups and their personalities leading to a more diverse personality landscape in startups?

Will the growth of startups outside of the United States change what success looks like to investors and hence the role of different personality traits and their association to diverse success metrics?

Many of today’s most renowned entrepreneurs are either Baby Boomers (such as Gates, Branson, Bloomberg) or Generation Xers (such as Benioff, Cannon-Brookes, Musk). However, as we can see, personality is both a predictor and driver of success in entrepreneurship. Will generation-wide differences in personality and outlook affect startups and their success?

Moreover, the findings shown here have natural extensions and applications beyond startups, such as for new projects within large established companies. While not technically startups, many large enterprises and industries such as construction, engineering and the film industry rely on forming new project-based, cross-functional teams that are often new ventures and share many characteristics of startups.

There is also potential for extending this research in other settings in government, NGOs, and within the research community. In scientific research, for example, team diversity in terms of age, ethnicity and gender has been shown to be predictive of impact, and personality diversity may be another critical dimension 52 .

Another extension of the study could investigate the development of the language used by startup founders on social media over time. Such an extension could investigate whether the language (and inferred psychological characteristics) change as the entrepreneurs’ ventures go through major business events such as foundation, funding, or exit.

Overall, this study demonstrates, first, that startup founders have significantly different personalities than employees. Secondly, besides firm-level factors, which are known to influence firm success, we show that a range of founder-level factors, notably the character traits of its founders, significantly impact a startup’s likelihood of success. Lastly, we looked at team-level factors. We discovered in a multifactor analysis that personality-diverse teams have the most considerable impact on the probability of a startup’s success, underlining the importance of personality diversity as a relevant factor of team performance and success.

Data sources

Entrepreneurs dataset.

Data about the founders of startups were collected from Crunchbase (Table  2 ), an open reference platform for business information about private and public companies, primarily early-stage startups. It is one of the largest and most comprehensive data sets of its kind and has been used in over 100 peer-reviewed research articles about economic and managerial research.

Crunchbase contains data on over two million companies - mainly startup companies and the companies who partner with them, acquire them and invest in them, as well as profiles on well over one million individuals active in the entrepreneurial ecosystem worldwide from over 200 countries and spans. Crunchbase started in the technology startup space, and it now covers all sectors, specifically focusing on entrepreneurship, investment and high-growth companies.

While Crunchbase contains data on over one million individuals in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, some are not entrepreneurs or startup founders but play other roles, such as investors, lawyers or executives at companies that acquire startups. To create a subset of only entrepreneurs, we selected a subset of 32,732 who self-identify as founders and co-founders (by job title) and who are also publicly active on the social media platform Twitter. We also removed those who also are venture capitalists to distinguish between investors and founders.

We selected founders active on Twitter to be able to use natural language processing to infer their Big Five personality features using an open-vocabulary approach shown to be accurate in the previous research by analysing users’ unstructured text, such as Twitter posts in our case. For this project, as with previous research 20 , we employed a commercial service, IBM Watson Personality Insight, to infer personality facets. This service provides raw scores and percentile scores of Big Five Domains (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Emotional Stability) and the corresponding 30 subdomains or facets. In addition, the public content of Twitter posts was collected, and there are 32,732 profiles that each had enough Twitter posts (more than 150 words) to get relatively accurate personality scores (less than 12.7% Average Mean Absolute Error).

The entrepreneurs’ dataset is analysed in combination with other data about the companies they founded to explore questions about the nature and patterns of personality traits of entrepreneurs and the relationships between these patterns and company success.

For the multifactor analysis, we further filtered the data in several preparatory steps for the success prediction modelling (for more details, see SI section  A.5 ). In particular, we removed data points with missing values (Extended Data Fig.  13 ) and kept only companies in the data that were founded from 1990 onward to ensure consistency with previous research 32 (see Extended Data Fig.  14 ). After cleaning, filtering and pre-processing the data, we ended up with data from 25,214 founders who founded 21,187 startup companies to be used in the multifactor analysis. Of those, 3442 startups in the data were successful, 2362 in the first seven years after they were founded (see Extended Data Figure  15 for more details).

Entrepreneurs and employees dataset

To investigate whether startup founders show personality traits that are similar or different from the population at large (i. e. the entrepreneurs vs employees sub-analysis shown in Fig.  1 A and B), we filtered the entrepreneurs’ data further: we reduced the sample to those founders of companies, which attracted more than US$100k in investment to create a reference set of successful entrepreneurs (n \(=\) 4400).

To create a control group of employees who are not also entrepreneurs or very unlikely to be of have been entrepreneurs, we leveraged the fact that while some occupational titles like CEO, CTO and Public Speaker are commonly shared by founders and co-founders, some others such as Cashier , Zoologist and Detective very rarely co-occur seem to be founders or co-founders. To illustrate, many company founders also adopt regular occupation titles such as CEO or CTO. Many founders will be Founder and CEO or Co-founder and CTO. While founders are often CEOs or CTOs, the reverse is not necessarily true, as many CEOs are professional executives that were not involved in the establishment or ownership of the firm.

Using data from LinkedIn, we created an Entrepreneurial Occupation Index (EOI) based on the ratio of entrepreneurs for each of the 624 occupations used in a previous study of occupation-personality fit 44 . It was calculated based on the percentage of all people working in the occupation from LinkedIn compared to those who shared the title Founder or Co-founder (See SI section  A.2 for more details). A reference set of employees (n=6685) was then selected across the 112 different occupations with the lowest propensity for entrepreneurship (less than 0.5% EOI) from a large corpus of Twitter users with known occupations, which is also drawn from the previous occupational-personality fit study 44 .

These two data sets were used to test whether it may be possible to distinguish successful entrepreneurs from successful employees based on the different patterns of personality traits alone.

Hierarchical clustering

We applied several clustering techniques and tests to the personality vectors of the entrepreneurs’ data set to determine if there are natural clusters and, if so, how many are the optimum number.

Firstly, to determine if there is a natural typology to founder personalities, we applied the Hopkins statistic—a statistical test we used to answer whether the entrepreneurs’ dataset contains inherent clusters. It measures the clustering tendency based on the ratio of the sum of distances of real points within a sample of the entrepreneurs’ dataset to their nearest neighbours and the sum of distances of randomly selected artificial points from a simulated uniform distribution to their nearest neighbours in the real entrepreneurs’ dataset. The ratio measures the difference between the entrepreneurs’ data distribution and the simulated uniform distribution, which tests the randomness of the data. The range of Hopkins statistics is from 0 to 1. The scores are close to 0, 0.5 and 1, respectively, indicating whether the dataset is uniformly distributed, randomly distributed or highly clustered.

To cluster the founders by personality facets, we used Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC)—a bottom-up approach that treats an individual data point as a singleton cluster and then iteratively merges pairs of clusters until all data points are included in the single big collection. Ward’s linkage method is used to choose the pair of groups for minimising the increase in the within-cluster variance after combining. AHC was widely applied to clustering analysis since a tree hierarchy output is more informative and interpretable than K-means. Dendrograms were used to visualise the hierarchy to provide the perspective of the optimal number of clusters. The heights of the dendrogram represent the distance between groups, with lower heights representing more similar groups of observations. A horizontal line through the dendrogram was drawn to distinguish the number of significantly different clusters with higher heights. However, as it is not possible to determine the optimum number of clusters from the dendrogram, we applied other clustering performance metrics to analyse the optimal number of groups.

A range of Clustering performance metrics were used to help determine the optimal number of clusters in the dataset after an apparent clustering tendency was confirmed. The following metrics were implemented to evaluate the differences between within-cluster and between-cluster distances comprehensively: Dunn Index, Calinski-Harabasz Index, Davies-Bouldin Index and Silhouette Index. The Dunn Index measures the ratio of the minimum inter-cluster separation and the maximum intra-cluster diameter. At the same time, the Calinski-Harabasz Index improves the measurement of the Dunn Index by calculating the ratio of the average sum of squared dispersion of inter-cluster and intra-cluster. The Davies-Bouldin Index simplifies the process by treating each cluster individually. It compares the sum of the average distance among intra-cluster data points to the cluster centre of two separate groups with the distance between their centre points. Finally, the Silhouette Index is the overall average of the silhouette coefficients for each sample. The coefficient measures the similarity of the data point to its cluster compared with the other groups. Higher scores of the Dunn, Calinski-Harabasz and Silhouette Index and a lower score of the Davies-Bouldin Index indicate better clustering configuration.

Classification modelling

Classification algorithms.

To obtain a comprehensive and robust conclusion in the analysis predicting whether a given set of personality traits corresponds to an entrepreneur or an employee, we explored the following classifiers: Naïve Bayes, Elastic Net regularisation, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting and Stacked Ensemble. The Naïve Bayes classifier is a probabilistic algorithm based on Bayes’ theorem with assumptions of independent features and equiprobable classes. Compared with other more complex classifiers, it saves computing time for large datasets and performs better if the assumptions hold. However, in the real world, those assumptions are generally violated. Elastic Net regularisation combines the penalties of Lasso and Ridge to regularise the Logistic classifier. It eliminates the limitation of multicollinearity in the Lasso method and improves the limitation of feature selection in the Ridge method. Even though Elastic Net is as simple as the Naïve Bayes classifier, it is more time-consuming. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) aims to find the ideal line or hyperplane to separate successful entrepreneurs and employees in this study. The dividing line can be non-linear based on a non-linear kernel, such as the Radial Basis Function Kernel. Therefore, it performs well on high-dimensional data while the ’right’ kernel selection needs to be tuned. Random Forest (RF) and Gradient Boosting Trees (GBT) are ensembles of decision trees. All trees are trained independently and simultaneously in RF, while a new tree is trained each time and corrected by previously trained trees in GBT. RF is a more robust and straightforward model since it does not have many hyperparameters to tune. GBT optimises the objective function and learns a more accurate model since there is a successive learning and correction process. Stacked Ensemble combines all existing classifiers through a Logistic Regression. Better than bagging with only variance reduction and boosting with only bias reduction, the ensemble leverages the benefit of model diversity with both lower variance and bias. All the above classification algorithms distinguish successful entrepreneurs and employees based on the personality matrix.

Evaluation metrics

A range of evaluation metrics comprehensively explains the performance of a classification prediction. The most straightforward metric is accuracy, which measures the overall portion of correct predictions. It will mislead the performance of an imbalanced dataset. The F1 score is better than accuracy by combining precision and recall and considering the False Negatives and False Positives. Specificity measures the proportion of detecting the true negative rate that correctly identifies employees, while Positive Predictive Value (PPV) calculates the probability of accurately predicting successful entrepreneurs. Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUROC) determines the capability of the algorithm to distinguish between successful entrepreneurs and employees. A higher value means the classifier performs better on separating the classes.

Feature importance

To further understand and interpret the classifier, it is critical to identify variables with significant predictive power on the target. Feature importance of tree-based models measures Gini importance scores for all predictors, which evaluate the overall impact of the model after cutting off the specific feature. The measurements consider all interactions among features. However, it does not provide insights into the directions of impacts since the importance only indicates the ability to distinguish different classes.

Statistical analysis

T-test, Cohen’s D and two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test are introduced to explore how the mean values and distributions of personality facets between entrepreneurs and employees differ. The T-test is applied to determine whether the mean of personality facets of two group samples are significantly different from one another or not. The facets with significant differences detected by the hypothesis testing are critical to separate the two groups. Cohen’s d is to measure the effect size of the results of the previous t-test, which is the ratio of the mean difference to the pooled standard deviation. A larger Cohen’s d score indicates that the mean difference is greater than the variability of the whole sample. Moreover, it is interesting to check whether the two groups’ personality facets’ probability distributions are from the same distribution through the two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. There is no assumption about the distributions, but the test is sensitive to deviations near the centre rather than the tail.

Privacy and ethics

The focus of this research is to provide high-level insights about groups of startups, founders and types of founder teams rather than on specific individuals or companies. While we used unit record data from the publicly available data of company profiles from Crunchbase , we removed all identifiers from the underlying data on individual companies and founders and generated aggregate results, which formed the basis for our analysis and conclusions.

Data availability

A dataset which includes only aggregated statistics about the success of startups and the factors that influence is released as part of this research. Underlying data for all figures and the code to reproduce them are available on GitHub: https://github.com/Braesemann/FounderPersonalities . Please contact Fabian Braesemann ( [email protected] ) in case you have any further questions.

Change history

07 may 2024.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-61082-7

Henrekson, M. & Johansson, D. Gazelles as job creators: A survey and interpretation of the evidence. Small Bus. Econ. 35 , 227–244 (2010).

Article   Google Scholar  

Davila, A., Foster, G., He, X. & Shimizu, C. The rise and fall of startups: Creation and destruction of revenue and jobs by young companies. Aust. J. Manag. 40 , 6–35 (2015).

Which vaccine saved the most lives in 2021?: Covid-19. The Economist (Online) (2022). noteName - AstraZeneca; Pfizer Inc; BioNTech SE; Copyright - Copyright The Economist Newspaper NA, Inc. Jul 14, 2022; Last updated - 2022-11-29.

Oltermann, P. Pfizer/biontech tax windfall brings mainz an early christmas present (2021). noteName - Pfizer Inc; BioNTech SE; Copyright - Copyright Guardian News & Media Limited Dec 27, 2021; Last updated - 2021-12-28.

Grant, K. A., Croteau, M. & Aziz, O. The survival rate of startups funded by angel investors. I-INC WHITE PAPER SER.: MAR 2019 , 1–21 (2019).

Google Scholar  

Top 20 reasons start-ups fail - cb insights version (2019). noteCopyright - Copyright Newstex Oct 21, 2019; Last updated - 2022-10-25.

Hochberg, Y. V., Ljungqvist, A. & Lu, Y. Whom you know matters: Venture capital networks and investment performance. J. Financ. 62 , 251–301 (2007).

Fracassi, C., Garmaise, M. J., Kogan, S. & Natividad, G. Business microloans for us subprime borrowers. J. Financ. Quantitative Ana. 51 , 55–83 (2016).

Davila, A., Foster, G. & Gupta, M. Venture capital financing and the growth of startup firms. J. Bus. Ventur. 18 , 689–708 (2003).

Nann, S. et al. Comparing the structure of virtual entrepreneur networks with business effectiveness. Proc. Soc. Behav. Sci. 2 , 6483–6496 (2010).

Guzman, J. & Stern, S. Where is silicon valley?. Science 347 , 606–609 (2015).

Article   ADS   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Aldrich, H. E. & Wiedenmayer, G. From traits to rates: An ecological perspective on organizational foundings. 61–97 (2019).

Gartner, W. B. Who is an entrepreneur? is the wrong question. Am. J. Small Bus. 12 , 11–32 (1988).

Thornton, P. H. The sociology of entrepreneurship. Ann. Rev. Sociol. 25 , 19–46 (1999).

Eikelboom, M. E., Gelderman, C. & Semeijn, J. Sustainable innovation in public procurement: The decisive role of the individual. J. Public Procure. 18 , 190–201 (2018).

Kerr, S. P. et al. Personality traits of entrepreneurs: A review of recent literature. Found. Trends Entrep. 14 , 279–356 (2018).

Hamilton, B. H., Papageorge, N. W. & Pande, N. The right stuff? Personality and entrepreneurship. Quant. Econ. 10 , 643–691 (2019).

Salmony, F. U. & Kanbach, D. K. Personality trait differences across types of entrepreneurs: A systematic literature review. RMS 16 , 713–749 (2022).

Freiberg, B. & Matz, S. C. Founder personality and entrepreneurial outcomes: A large-scale field study of technology startups. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 120 , e2215829120 (2023).

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Kern, M. L., McCarthy, P. X., Chakrabarty, D. & Rizoiu, M.-A. Social media-predicted personality traits and values can help match people to their ideal jobs. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 116 , 26459–26464 (2019).

Article   ADS   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Dalle, J.-M., Den Besten, M. & Menon, C. Using crunchbase for economic and managerial research. (2017).

Block, J. & Sandner, P. What is the effect of the financial crisis on venture capital financing? Empirical evidence from us internet start-ups. Ventur. Cap. 11 , 295–309 (2009).

Antretter, T., Blohm, I. & Grichnik, D. Predicting startup survival from digital traces: Towards a procedure for early stage investors (2018).

Dworak, D. Analysis of founder background as a predictor for start-up success in achieving successive fundraising rounds. (2022).

Hsu, D. H. Venture capitalists and cooperative start-up commercialization strategy. Manage. Sci. 52 , 204–219 (2006).

Blank, S. Why the lean start-up changes everything (2018).

Kaplan, S. N. & Lerner, J. It ain’t broke: The past, present, and future of venture capital. J. Appl. Corp. Financ. 22 , 36–47 (2010).

Hallen, B. L. & Eisenhardt, K. M. Catalyzing strategies and efficient tie formation: How entrepreneurial firms obtain investment ties. Acad. Manag. J. 55 , 35–70 (2012).

Gompers, P. A. & Lerner, J. The Venture Capital Cycle (MIT Press, 2004).

Shane, S. & Venkataraman, S. The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Acad. Manag. Rev. 25 , 217–226 (2000).

Zahra, S. A. & Wright, M. Understanding the social role of entrepreneurship. J. Manage. Stud. 53 , 610–629 (2016).

Bonaventura, M. et al. Predicting success in the worldwide start-up network. Sci. Rep. 10 , 1–6 (2020).

Schwartz, H. A. et al. Personality, gender, and age in the language of social media: The open-vocabulary approach. PLoS ONE 8 , e73791 (2013).

Plank, B. & Hovy, D. Personality traits on twitter-or-how to get 1,500 personality tests in a week. In Proceedings of the 6th workshop on computational approaches to subjectivity, sentiment and social media analysis , pp 92–98 (2015).

Arnoux, P.-H. et al. 25 tweets to know you: A new model to predict personality with social media. In booktitleEleventh international AAAI conference on web and social media (2017).

Roberts, B. W., Kuncel, N. R., Shiner, R., Caspi, A. & Goldberg, L. R. The power of personality: The comparative validity of personality traits, socioeconomic status, and cognitive ability for predicting important life outcomes. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 2 , 313–345 (2007).

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Youyou, W., Kosinski, M. & Stillwell, D. Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 112 , 1036–1040 (2015).

Soldz, S. & Vaillant, G. E. The big five personality traits and the life course: A 45-year longitudinal study. J. Res. Pers. 33 , 208–232 (1999).

Damian, R. I., Spengler, M., Sutu, A. & Roberts, B. W. Sixteen going on sixty-six: A longitudinal study of personality stability and change across 50 years. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 117 , 674 (2019).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Rantanen, J., Metsäpelto, R.-L., Feldt, T., Pulkkinen, L. & Kokko, K. Long-term stability in the big five personality traits in adulthood. Scand. J. Psychol. 48 , 511–518 (2007).

Roberts, B. W., Caspi, A. & Moffitt, T. E. The kids are alright: Growth and stability in personality development from adolescence to adulthood. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 81 , 670 (2001).

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Cobb-Clark, D. A. & Schurer, S. The stability of big-five personality traits. Econ. Lett. 115 , 11–15 (2012).

Graham, P. Do Things that Don’t Scale (Paul Graham, 2013).

McCarthy, P. X., Kern, M. L., Gong, X., Parker, M. & Rizoiu, M.-A. Occupation-personality fit is associated with higher employee engagement and happiness. (2022).

Pratt, A. C. Advertising and creativity, a governance approach: A case study of creative agencies in London. Environ. Plan A 38 , 1883–1899 (2006).

Klotz, A. C., Hmieleski, K. M., Bradley, B. H. & Busenitz, L. W. New venture teams: A review of the literature and roadmap for future research. J. Manag. 40 , 226–255 (2014).

Duggan, M., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A. & Madden, M. Demographics of key social networking platforms. Pew Res. Center 9 (2015).

Fisch, C. & Block, J. H. How does entrepreneurial failure change an entrepreneur’s digital identity? Evidence from twitter data. J. Bus. Ventur. 36 , 106015 (2021).

Brush, C., Edelman, L. F., Manolova, T. & Welter, F. A gendered look at entrepreneurship ecosystems. Small Bus. Econ. 53 , 393–408 (2019).

Kanze, D., Huang, L., Conley, M. A. & Higgins, E. T. We ask men to win and women not to lose: Closing the gender gap in startup funding. Acad. Manag. J. 61 , 586–614 (2018).

Fan, J. S. Startup biases. UC Davis Law Review (2022).

AlShebli, B. K., Rahwan, T. & Woon, W. L. The preeminence of ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration. Nat. Commun. 9 , 1–10 (2018).

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Żbikowski, K. & Antosiuk, P. A machine learning, bias-free approach for predicting business success using crunchbase data. Inf. Process. Manag. 58 , 102555 (2021).

Corea, F., Bertinetti, G. & Cervellati, E. M. Hacking the venture industry: An early-stage startups investment framework for data-driven investors. Mach. Learn. Appl. 5 , 100062 (2021).

Chapman, G. & Hottenrott, H. Founder personality and start-up subsidies. Founder Personality and Start-up Subsidies (2021).

Antoncic, B., Bratkovicregar, T., Singh, G. & DeNoble, A. F. The big five personality-entrepreneurship relationship: Evidence from slovenia. J. Small Bus. Manage. 53 , 819–841 (2015).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Gary Brewer from BuiltWith ; Leni Mayo from Influx , Rachel Slattery from TeamSlatts and Daniel Petre from AirTree Ventures for their ongoing generosity and insights about startups, founders and venture investments. We also thank Tim Li from Crunchbase for advice and liaison regarding data on startups and Richard Slatter for advice and referrals in Twitter .

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

The Data Science Institute, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Paul X. McCarthy

School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Xian Gong & Marian-Andrei Rizoiu

Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Fabian Braesemann & Fabian Stephany

DWG Datenwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

Margaret L. Kern

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors designed research; All authors analysed data and undertook investigation; F.B. and F.S. led multi-factor analysis; P.M., X.G. and M.A.R. led the founder/employee prediction; M.L.K. led personality insights; X.G. collected and tabulated the data; X.G., F.B., and F.S. created figures; X.G. created final art, and all authors wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabian Braesemann .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The original online version of this Article was revised: The Data Availability section in the original version of this Article was incomplete, the link to the GitHub repository was omitted. Full information regarding the corrections made can be found in the correction for this Article.

Supplementary Information

Supplementary information., rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

McCarthy, P.X., Gong, X., Braesemann, F. et al. The impact of founder personalities on startup success. Sci Rep 13 , 17200 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41980-y

Download citation

Received : 15 February 2023

Accepted : 04 September 2023

Published : 17 October 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41980-y

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines . If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics newsletter — what matters in AI and robotics research, free to your inbox weekly.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Front Psychol

Some Preliminary Notes on an Empirical Test of Freud’s Theory on Depression

Mattias desmet.

1 Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

A review of the literature indicates that empirical researchers have difficulty translating Freud’s theory on depression into appropriate research questions and hypotheses. In their attempt to do so, the level of complexity in Freud’s work is often lost. As a result, what is empirically tested is no more than a caricature of the original theory. To help researchers avoid such problems, this study presents a conceptual analysis of Freud’s theory of depression as it is presented in Mourning and Melancholia (Freud, 1917 ). In analyzing Freud’s theory on the etiology of depression, it is essential to differentiate between (1) an identification with the satisfying and frustrating aspects of the love object, (2) the inter- and an intrapersonal loss of the love object, and (3) conscious and unconscious dynamics. A schematic representation of the mechanism of depression is put forward and a research design by which this schema can be empirically investigated is outlined.

Introduction

A review of the empirical research into Freud’s theory on depression reveals two major problems. First, there is often a dramatic gap between Freud’s theory and the hypotheses empirical researchers develop from it. Most illustrative of this is the way in which Freud’s theoretical ideas about the association between depression and experiences of loss have been put to the test. In this context, Fisher and Greenberg ( 1996 , p.26) observe that “with minor exceptions, researchers have chosen to define loss in terms of loss of significant family figures (primarily parents) usually due to death.” However, even a superficial reading of Freud’s ( 1917 ) ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ would suffice to show that his notion of loss is situated at a different level. Freud states that “In melancholia, the occasions which give rise to the illness extend for the most part beyond the clear case of a loss by death, and include all those situations of being slighted, neglected, or disappointed, which can import opposed feelings of love and hate into the relationship or reinforce an already existing ambivalence” (Freud, 1917 , p. 251). For Freud there is no reason to believe that a loss – be it by death, divorce, or any other reason – should necessarily lead to depression if it is not connected to a feeling of being slighted or disappointed, and if it does not introduce a profound ambivalence toward what is lost. Fisher and Greenberg’s ( 1996 , p. 29) review of the empirical research into the association between depression and loss concludes that “The symptoms of a major segment of those who become clinically depressed have not, in any empirical fashion, been shown to have been triggered by a loss as such.” What is ironic about Fisher and Greenberg’s ( 1996 ) observations, however, is that they are put forward as part of an argument against the validity of Freudian theory.

The second problem with empirical research into Freud’s theory of depression is that it virtually always focuses on isolated associations between depression and theoretically related variables, such as loss, narcissistic identification, feeling slighted, introjection of aggression, ambivalence, etc. (e.g., Fisher and Greenberg, 1996 , pp. 24–25). It is clear, however, that in an isolated state, these variables are potentially related to a variety of other types of psychopathology as well. For example, ambivalence can be associated with obsessional neurosis, feeling slighted with hysteria, narcissistic identification with psychosis. As we will show in this study, Freud’s ( 1917 ) text clearly indicates that isolated expressions of these different characteristics should not be thought of as typical of depression; what Freud emphasizes is the occurrence of these different characteristics in a specific constellation .

Overall, the complexity of Freud’s theory is such that empirical researchers appear to have had difficulty translating it into appropriate hypotheses and research questions. Without a thorough understanding of Freud’s work, however, any hypotheses and research questions borne out of it will be overly simplistic. This means that testing such hypotheses will not reflect a test of the theory he put forward. One of the biggest challenges for psychoanalysis is reducing the gap between theory and empirical research. Indeed, conceptual and empirical research are too often carried out in separate spheres. Nevertheless, all research should start from theory and hopefully return to it. Without a robust theoretical framework empirical research has no compass and it is not long before one loses track of the phenomena under investigation.

In this study I present a conceptual analysis of Freud’s ( 1917 ) Mourning and Melancholia that can serve as a starting point for qualitative and quantitative research. In the course of my analysis, I draw from my own clinical practice to elaborate certain aspects of Freud’s theory. This clinical component of my analysis mainly consists of unsystematic observations and is introduced only as an elaboration of certain of Freud’s ideas. The conditions in which these observations were made are not explicitly outlined in this paper. As discussed below, in future research, the theoretical structure put forward here should be contrasted with clinical data gathered and analyzed in a systematic way. A research design that would be appropriate in this regard is presented in the final part of this study.

Conceptual Analysis of Freud’s Theory on Depression

Above we argued that Freud conceived the experience of object loss in depression in a broader sense than the mere loss of a loved one through death. Such an interpretation not only misunderstands how Freud conceptualized the nature of the experience of loss, but also erroneously implies that loss is the cause of depression. Such causal reasoning is nowhere to be found at this stage of Freud’s work, where the reader will find his theoretical ideas are far more complex.

The first thing to note about Freud’s line of reasoning in Mourning and Melancholia is that loss is first experienced at the inter personal level and is, in a second moment, repeated at the intra personal level. The first loss is situated in relation to a loved one. Here he states that “An object-choice, an attachment of the libido to a particular person, had at one time existed; then, owing to a real slight or disappointment coming from this loved person, the object-relationship was shattered” (Freud, 1917 , pp. 248–249). This slight turns a quantum of love into hate and thus entails ambivalence toward the loved person. As a consequence of this conflict, the loved one is dropped. Freud does not go into further detail about the nature of this “slight or disappointment.” However, my own clinical observations suggest that the slight is often passive in nature. The love object failed to act when the patient was in a situation where she/he needed help. This situation is usually associated with a broader Oedipal constellation: in the narratives of patients affected by severe depression, there is usually a polarized description of the parents. One of them is described as a tyrant, who oppressed both the other parent and the patient. The other parent is usually described as a victim; weak and unable to defend him/herself. The narratives of such patients also often refer to the tyrant-parent as the one who is the cause of all suffering. In this context, it is not infrequent that the patient gives accounts of having been done some kind of great injustice by him/her. The other parent – who is usually in the position of love object – is often described as having been too weak to intervene. The therapeutic process often reveals that at an unconscious level, this failure was the trigger for the depression. Thus, with respect to the “slights and disappointments” outlined in Freud’s etiology of depression, we must distinguish between the conscious and the unconscious level. At the conscious level, we find a certain injustice inflicted by the tyrant-parent; at the unconscious level we find the passiveness of the victim-parent.

As stated above, Freud did not consider such slights and disappointments to be the cause of depression. The cause is rather situated at the level of a specific way of responding to such disappointments. After being (seriously) disappointed by the love object, most people transfer their libidinal investment to another person, i.e., they replace their love object with another. However, people vulnerable to depression react in another way. They withdraw the libido from the object to the ego and reinvest it in two ways. On the one hand, it is used to erect a narcissistic identification with the love object. On the other hand it is invested in sadistic impulses operating in the super-ego which attack the identification with the love object in the ego by means of harsh self-reproaches. Finally, the sadism prevails and the libidinal investments of the representations of the object in the ego are given up. This is the second loss, the intrapersonal loss, which is a loss of libido in the ego. Below I describe the different aspects of the process that leads to this intrapersonal loss in more detail, starting with Freud’s theory on the mechanism of identification.

In Freud’s view, identification always occurs in relation to a love object. People identify with something because it offers a certain advantage in the struggle for a love object. In Lacanian terms, we might say that people identify with something – a signifier – because it gives them a place in the desire of a loved other. Freud distinguishes between two types of identification. Hysterical identification – which is the most common – is an identification with the possessor of the love object . In other words, to have success in the competition for the desire of a loved other, one identifies with someone who already proved to be successful. This is the basic mechanism in hysterical epidemics. Let’s take the example of a school where all pupils are suddenly afflicted with stomach aches. When the first pupil falls ill, apparently due to the consumption of contaminated food in the school restaurant, the others – without having eaten the contaminated food – might unconsciously interpret the reactions of compassion extended to the affected pupil as a sign of love. Consequently, they begin to experience the same symptoms. The second type of identification is more unusual and concerns an identification with the love object itself . Freud ( 1921 , p.108) gives the example of a boy who is closely attached to his mother and who, upon being sent to boarding school, starts taking care of the other children in the same way as his mother took care of him. Thus, to deal with the loss of the love object, he becomes the love object. According to Freud, this is what happens in depression. Upon being disappointed by a love object, the patient identifies with it. Freud does not specify, however, with what aspects of the love object the patient identifies. On the basis of my clinical experience, however, I put forward the hypothesis that it concerns an identification with the slighting, disappointing aspects of the object. I argued above that the disappointment in depression is passive in nature: the depressed person feels distress because the love object does not take the desired action. The depressive state – which is essentially a state of deep passivity and refusal to react to the stimuli of life – always boils down to an identification with the passiveness of the love object. The patient reacts to the failure of the love object according to the “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” principle (i.e., “if you don’t do anything for me, then I won’t do anything for you either”).

This sheds light on the subsequent step in Freud’s description of the etiology of depression. After identifying with the love object, sadism from the super-ego is directed at the newly formed identifications. However, this does not seem to be entirely correct: the sadism from the super-ego does not so much attack the new identification with the love object, but attacks the identification with the object that was made before the disappointment, when the relationship was predominantly satisfying. In that period, the patient installed narcissistic identifications with the tender, loving, and caring aspects of the love object. This is perhaps the reason why many depressive patients show excessively altruistic characteristics before the depression manifests, making them over-represented in care-giving occupations. In other words, the mental process of the depressed individual boils down to this: “Because you disappointed me by being passive in a situation in which I needed you, I will take revenge by becoming passive as well, and I won’t love or care for you any longer.”

Thus, what is lost at the intrapersonal level is the identification with the positive characteristics of the love object that was made prior to the disappointments. What is “gained” in this process is a set of identifications with the negative aspects of the love object. This has certain consequences. First, the depressive person feels worthless, a failure with respect to his/her altruistic ideals (stemming from the initial identification with the love object). Consequently, the depressive person starts to reproach himself/herself over a series of things that apply to the negative aspects of the love object. Here we are perfectly in line with Freud’s theory again, which explicitly states that self-reproaches are actually reproaches made toward the love object. Indeed, Freud remarks that such reproaches always simultaneously address identifications with the love object in the ego and the love object itself. This love object is often found to be in close proximity to the patient and is more or less burdened by the depression of the patient (Freud, 1917 , p. 251). The destructive effect of depression on the people surrounding the affected individual has been documented extensively in empirical research (e.g., Coyne, 1976 ) and is one of the most characteristic aspects of Freud’s theory. In the end, Freud states, depression always boils down to sadism: by being unwell, the depressive patient attempts to torture the former love object, punishing him/her for his/her failures.

The exact mechanism of depressive sadism is not described in detail by Freud, but it is easy to see that it operates via the mechanism of commiseration . The depressive knows that if he/she suffers, the love object will suffer with him/her. That is why suffering becomes an attractor. Here we can refer to the critical analysis of Christianity that Nietzsche ( 1895 ) makes in The Antichrist . Christianity declared commiseration to be the fundamental virtue. Yet, according to Nietzsche, it is a vice rather than a virtue because, on the one hand, it multiplies suffering (when one person commiserates with a suffering person, two people suffer) and, on the other, because it makes suffering attractive (because it has an impact on the other). In the final analysis, therefore, the epidemic of depression in the Western industrialized world might be partially a consequence of centuries of cultivating commiseration as the highest virtue.

It’s important, however, to differentiate between an imaginary and a symbolic dimension in commiseration. The symbolic dimension is better indicated by the term compassion . Commiseration then implies that one sympathizes with the imago’s of suffering by which a depressive presents himself to the world. As such, it renders permanent those imago’s and it is therefore associated with resistance and stagnation in the depressive state (Lacan, 1953a , b ). Compassion, however, implies a readiness to take a subject’s speech seriously, to confirm the inevitability of suffering within the parameters of the subjectivity of the patient, and to recognize the subjective strainedness in the discourse of the other. It’s this openness to speech that can be expected to transform the patient’s subjective structure and depressive experiences. As such, compassion is essential to the dénouement of the knot of depression.

Furthermore, a striking difference can be observed between conscious and unconscious mechanisms in depression. With respect to the slight, at the conscious level depressive complaints address the aggressive oppression of the tyrant-parent. At the unconscious level depressive complaints address the passiveness of the victim-parent. A similar distinction can be observed in the individual’s self-reproach. At the conscious level, aggression (from the super-ego) is directed toward the passive aspects of the ego. The content of the self-reproach always boils down to the fact that she/he is sick and passive, unable to do anything for loved ones. At the unconscious level, however, aggression is clearly directed toward the positive, caring aspects of the love object. Because the depressive feels slighted by the passiveness of the love object, she/he refuses to offer love and care any longer. In this light, the self-reproach that one cannot care anymore has to be qualified as false. Thus, depression reveals the fundamental falseness of the human ego. Or, as Lacan ( 1963 , p. 79) puts it in the tenth seminar, it testifies to the fact that the human subject is essentially an entity that erases its own traces.

Before integrating the results of our analysis into a schema, we will discuss one other aspect of Freud’s ( 1917 ) Mourning and Melancholia. In this text, Freud does not specify whether the love object he is referring to is a love object from childhood or from the time when the patient becomes depressed. In line with the Freud broader theoretical frame, it seems clear that he is referring to both. In childhood, the future depressive’s representation of the love object was outlined above, i.e., at the conscious level the love object is represented as weak but loving, while at the unconscious level the love object is represented as disappointing and passive. Since these representations are invested with libido, the future depressive will love others who match these representations. This means that this set of representations – of signifiers in Lacanian terms – will pre-program a repetition of the same disappointment in later life. As soon as this becomes manifest, the whole mechanism described above is effectuated and inevitably leads to the depressive phenomenology. This should not imply that from time to time this deadly repetition cannot be halted, usually in an encounter with someone who is able to convince the depressive person that there is another way to exist for an Other.

This was, in a nutshell, Freud’s theory on depression. Figure ​ Figure1 1 presents the logical structure as it is presented by Freud in Mourning and Melancholia. Figure ​ Figure2 2 presents the same logical structure extended with the elaborations presented above.

The intra- and interpersonal loss in the etiology of depression according to the theory of Freud in Mourning and Melancholia .

The intra- and interpersonal loss in the etiology of depression differentiating between identifications with positive and negative aspects of the object .

Research Designs Appropriate to Test Freudian Theory on Depression

As was argued in the introduction, it is the totality of the mechanism presented in Figures ​ Figures1 1 and ​ and2 2 that should be tested in empirical research, not isolated components of it. None of the constituent parts can be deemed typical of depression. Hypotheses focusing on the different constituent parts (e.g., “Depressives systematically report feeling slighted by the passivity of their love objects”) can be formulated, but a global assessment of the structure described above is still needed.

The research design most appropriate for the assessment of this clinical complexity is without a doubt the naturalistic single case-study design. In naturalistic single case-study research the therapeutic process is studied in detail and in such a way that it interferes minimally with daily practice. This, of course, does not mean that the act of investigation leaves no traces: such research is suitable only for certain patients, where the therapist can reasonably believe that the research component will not interfere with the therapeutic process. In permissible cases, therapy sessions are recorded with the informed consent of the patient. Throughout the treatment, psychological and biological variables are measured, and medication use and health-care expenses are documented. Contrary to what is often believed, recording sessions proves to have little or no inhibiting effect on patients’ speech (Kächele et al., 2009 ). Psychometric evaluations are limited to self-report questionnaires, assessing “general distress,” and the patient’s specific symptoms. These assessments take no more than a few minutes and are conducted after every session. Few studies on the validity of psychometric measurements in single case-study designs have been carried out until now. However, it can be anticipated that for most variables included in single case-study designs, psychometric measurements will be far more precise compared to group designs. Important sources of measurement error, such as differential interpretations of scales between subjects and spontaneous fluctuations in the variables under investigation, are absent in single case-study research or can be controlled for.

In addition to the therapy recordings and the self-report data, once per month saliva samples are taken for four consecutive days, each morning and evening. The samples are gathered by the patient him/herself, at home, by chewing on a piece of wadding and placing it into a small tube (a so-called salivette ). In these saliva samples, evolutions in the concentrations of hormones, such as cortisol, testosterone, and androstenone, can be registered through mass spectrometry. Receptor sensitivity on the genetic material in the saliva can also be determined. Gathering saliva samples is a non-intrusive and reliable method of investigating the biological effects of psychotherapy. When the therapy is complete, the therapy recordings are transcribed verbatim and the researcher can carry out an analysis of the data.

The ultimate goal of the analysis is evaluate the global structure of depression. In doing so, we start from the following assumptions: (1) That the theoretical structure specified above determines depressive complaints; (2) That the patient will progressively become aware of this structure during the therapeutic process and that this structure will appear more and more explicit in his/her speech; and (3) That depressive complaints will decrease, not at the moment the patient becomes aware of the depressogenic structure, but at the moment he/she distances him/herself from it, i.e., at the moment he/she replaces identifications with the passive/destructive aspects of the love object with identifications with active/constructive aspects of the love object. Merely gaining insight into this structure might well intensify the patient’s complaints; in most cases, a substantial period of working-through – in which the depressive identifications are progressively restructured and replaced by other identifications – will be needed.

In the first step of the analysis, fragments of the clinical material that refer to each of the separate elements of the theoretical structure (e.g., feeling slighted by a love object, ambivalence toward love object, etc.) are marked in the transcripts of the recorded sessions. As the therapeutic process progresses, we hypothesize that the patient will progressively integrate all of the separate elements into a comprehensive narrative surrounding his/her depression. Therefore, qualitative assessment is used to determine whether the integration of the separate elements happens in a theory consistent or inconsistent way. To quantify this process, the Integration Index (INTI) can be computed by simply adding all of the different theory-congruent associations between the separate elements within a certain range of sessions (e.g., sessions 5–10, sessions 60–65, etc.). As the depressive gains insight into the structure of his/her depressive experiences (i.e., as the above-described structure appears in the narratives of the depressive), we suppose that new – non-depressive – identifications will appear in the depressive’s narratives. To quantify this process, the Non-Depressive Identifications Index (NDII) can be computed by counting the references to such identifications in the transcriptions of the sessions. While we hypothesize a zero-correlation between the INTI and depressive complaints (as measured by the self-report questionnaires and the stress hormones), we hypothesize a significantly negative correlation between the NDII and depressive complaints (i.e., as the former increases, the latter will decrease). In general, four possible observations will lead to complete or partial rejection of the hypothesized structure: (1) The separate characteristics are not observed in the narrative material; (2) Theory-incongruent associations are observed between the separate characteristics; and (3) The INTI shows a negative correlation with measures of depressive complaints; and (4) The NDII does not show the predicted negative associations with measures of depressive complaints.

With respect to selecting participants for such studies, patients for whom depression is the primary complaint are the most suitable. Participants can be selected according to DSM-IV criteria, by means of the Structured Interview for DSM-IV diagnostics (SCID-II; First et al., 1997 ) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996 ). It is often the case that psychological problems are accompanied by a certain feeling of depression. In other words, depression can manifest as a side effect of another type of problem. While in such cases the mechanism of the depression might be similar to the one outlined above, these patients should not be considered suitable for studies of this kind. Studying subtypes of depression, such as the anaclitic and introjective types described by Blatt ( 1974 ), is essential in understanding the differential manifestation of depressive phenomenology in different personality structures, but it is of secondary importance to the investigation of the general mechanism of depression. Such subtypes are arguably variations of the general mechanisms of depression, effectuated by differences at the level of the broader personality organization.

Some authors argue that in Mourning and Melancholia Freud is referring to psychotic depression. This interpretation seems to be based on the fact that Freud used the term melancholia rather than depression. However, Freud’s remarks in the beginning of this text make clear that he was referring to depression in general, and not (only) psychotic depression. The use of the term melancholia was widespread in German psychiatry in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, in his well-known case-study of Dora, Freud makes clear that he considered melancholia treatable by means of psychoanalysis (Freud, 1905 , p. 54). Bearing in mind that he did not consider psychoanalytic treatment appropriate for psychotic disorders, it seems highly improbable that he used the term melancholia with reference to psychotic depression.

Apart from diagnostic specifications, there are other restrictions in the selection of participants for single case-study research into depression. Not all depressive patients will be motivated to go through such an arduous and often long-term therapeutic process. Some patients will have a preference for another type of therapy, some might terminate the treatment before it reaches the point where the underlying structure is revealed. The application of our research procedure is therefore limited to the subgroup of patients that choose for psychoanalytic therapy. Whether this type of therapy is more effective in reducing depressive complaints than other types of therapy is a question that cannot be addressed in single case-study research (see also Desmet, 2013 ). What can be addressed, however, is the specific nature of the effects of psychoanalytic therapy and the process that leads to these effects. There are undoubtedly many roads toward recovery from depressive symptoms. The effects of the different types of therapy on the broader personality organization – or the subjectivity of the patient – however, might be quite different. Certain therapies, such as behavioral therapies, aim the straightforward restoration of the cohesion of the patient’s Ego, without making a detour to the unconscious or non-integrated aspects of the patient’s subjectivity; other therapies, such as psychoanalysis, do undertake this detour in order to place the patient in charge of his own life and to make him the author of his own history; still other therapies aim at a temporarily relief from depressing drives and ideations by means of pharmaceutical interventions to open up a pathway out of the depressive experiences. Whether or not interventions are successful probably depends on the match between the type of interventions and the characteristics of the patient’s personality.

Discussion and Conclusion

In the first part of this study we presented a conceptual analysis of Freud’s theory of depression. In doing so, we highlighted the demonic side of depression, i.e., the sadistic drive. From a therapeutic perspective, it is important to situate the sadistic drive at the appropriate level. Depression – like any other type of sadism – is an ultimate attempt to exist for a significant other. When the subject does not exist for another through tenderness, he might do so by inflicting pain. Through the suffering of the other, the sadist finds confirmation that he/she exists for him/her. What is unbearable for the subject is the indifference of the other. In this respect, sadism is a derivate of love. Tracing back depressive sadism to its roots in love, reintegrating it in the subjective experience of love, might be the ultimate therapeutic effect.

This conceptual analysis resulted in a figure representing a schematic overview of Freud’s causal reasoning on depression. In the second part of this study, we presented a single case research design to put this theory to the test. In this design, we proposed to start from the identification of separate characteristics of depression in the clinical material. Subsequently, assessment of the global structure of depression can happen through an examination of the associations between the separate characteristics. From conceptual, clinical, and psychometric perspectives, I believe this research design is adequate for testing Freud’s theory on depression. It is without any doubt that the logical structure presented here will have to be adapted in confrontation with empirical material. Therefore, it cannot be considered an established body of knowledge, but only a fertile starting point for empirical research.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

• Beck A. T., Steer R. A., Brown G. K. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory , 2nd Edn. San Antonio: Harcourt Assessment [ Google Scholar ]
• Blatt S. J. (1974). Levels of object representation in anaclitic and introjective depression . Psychoanal. Study Child 24 , 107–157 [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Coyne J. C. (1976). Toward an interactional description of depression . Psychiatry 39 , 28–40 [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Desmet M. (2013). Experimental versus naturalistic psychotherapy research: consequences for researchers, clinicians, policy makers and patients . Psychoanal. Persp. 31 , 59–78 [ Google Scholar ]
• First M. B., Gibbon R. L., Spitzer M., Williams J. B. W. (1997). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders, (SCID-II) . Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press [ Google Scholar ]
• Fisher S., Greenberg R. P. (1996). Freud Scientifically Reappraised . New York: John Wiley [ Google Scholar ]
• Freud S. (1905). “Fragment of the analysis of a case of hysteria,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , Vol. 7 , ed. Stratchey J., (London: Hogarth; ), trans 7–122 [ Google Scholar ]
• Freud S. (1917). “Mourning and melancholia,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , Vol. 14 , ed. Stratchey J., (London: Hogarth; ), trans 237–260 [ Google Scholar ]
• Freud S. (1921). “Group psychology and the analysis of the ego,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , Vol. 18 , ed. Stratchey J., (London: Hogarth; ), trans 69–143 [ Google Scholar ]
• Kächele H., Schachter J., Thomä H. (2009). From Psychoanalytic Narrative to Empirical Single Case Research . New York: Routledge [ Google Scholar ]
• Lacan J. (1953a). Le symbolique, l’imaginaire, et le réele . Bull. Assoc. Freudienne , 1 , 4–13 [ Google Scholar ]
• Lacan J. (1953b). Le séminaire livre I: Les écrits techniques de Freud . Paris: Editions du Seuil [ Google Scholar ]
• Lacan J. (1963). Le séminaire livre X: L’Angoisse . Paris: Editions du Seuil [ Google Scholar ]
• Nietzsche F. (1895). The Antichrist . London: Penguin Books [ Google Scholar ]