Freud, Sig ‧ mund /frɔɪd, ˈsɪɡmənd/ BrE AmE
(1856–1939) an Austrian doctor who developed a new system for understanding the way that people's minds work, and a new way of treating mental illness called ↑ psychoanalysis . He discovered the ↑ unconscious (=the part of your mind where there are thoughts and feelings that you do not realize you have) . He believed that bad experiences that people have as children can affect their mental health as adults, and that by talking to a mentally ill person about their past life and feelings, the hidden causes of their illness can be found. He wrote The Interpretation of Dreams and The Ego and the Id . His ideas, especially about the importance of sex, have had a very great influence on the way that people think in the 20th century.