The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.

No neurotic harbors thoughts of suicide which are not murderous impulses against others redirected upon himself.

The state in which the ideas existed before being made conscious is called by us repression, and we assert that the force which instituted the repression and maintains it is perceived as resistance during the work of analysis.

A man who has been the indisputable favorite of his mother keeps for life the feeling of a conqueror.

At first the analysing physician could do no more than discover the unconscious material that was concealed from the patient, put it together, and, at the right moment, communicate it to him. Psychoanalysis was then first and foremost an art of interpreting. Since this did not solve the therapeutic problem, a further aim quickly came in view: to oblige the patient to confirm the analyst's construction from his own memory.

I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.

When a love-relationship is at its height there is no room left for any interest in the environment; a pair of lovers are sufficient to themselves