Claim: Sigmund Freud set up his clinical practice in 1886.

Sigmund Freud -LRB- -LSB- ` frɔɪd -RSB- ; -LSB- ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt -RSB- ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud ; 6 May 1856 -- 23 September 1939 -RRB- was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis , a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst . Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg , in the Austrian Empire . He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna . Upon completing his habilitation in 1885 , he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902 . Freud lived and worked in Vienna , having set up his clinical practice there in 1886 . In 1938 Freud left Austria to escape the Nazis . He died in exile in the United Kingdom in 1939 .   In creating psychoanalysis , Freud developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference , establishing its central role in the analytic process . Freud 's redefinition of sexuality to include its infantile forms led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory . His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the underlying mechanisms of repression . On this basis Freud elaborated his theory of the unconscious and went on to develop a model of psychic structure comprising id , ego and super-ego . Freud postulated the existence of libido , an energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments , and a death drive , the source of compulsive repetition , hate , aggression and neurotic guilt . In his later work Freud developed a wide-ranging interpretation and critique of religion and culture .   Though in overall decline as a diagnostic and clinical practice , psychoanalysis remains influential within psychology , psychiatry , and psychotherapy , and across the humanities . As such , it continues to generate extensive and highly contested debate with regard to its therapeutic efficacy , its scientific status , and whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause . Nonetheless , Freud 's work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture . In the words of W. H. Auden 's 1940 poetic tribute , by the time of Freud 's death , he had become `` a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives . ''