He developed a relationship with Breuer; both discussed Breuer's cases, including Anna O. who became an important part of the development of psychoanalysis (Schultz & Schultz, p. 425).
Anna O. had a range of hysterical symptoms (paralysis, memory loss and deterioration, nausea, and vision and speech disturbance). With hypnosis, Anna remembered her symptoms began while caring for her dying father. While Breuer worked with Anna, Freud studied under Charcot, who used hypnosis and asserted a sexual basis for patient difficulties. Freud returned from this experience with an interest in sexual etiology of emotional distress. He used Breuer's methods of hypnosis and catharsis to treat patients, but soon became unhappy with hypnosis. He retained catharsis for a treatment technique and developed free association, the most significant technique in the evolution of psychoanalysis. Freud used free association and found that his patient's memories went back into childhood and many concerned sexual matters. Freud and Breuer published Studies on Hysteria (1895) which included the case of Anna O. and this marked the formal beginning of psychoanalysis (Schultz & Schultz, pp. 426-428).
Freud's work formulated the psychoanalytic view of human nature. He explained the personality as a closed energy system, with unconscious instincts, biological drives that will be attended to, conscious and unconscious parts (Id, Ego, Super Ego), anxieties, and defense systems (repression, denial, intellectualization). Biological instincts and childhood experiences determine who a person is. Human nature was viewed as biologically determined and driven, rather than a conglomerate of learned behaviors to be manipulated, or a positive potential for self-actualization (Schultz & Schultz, pp. 439-443).
Individuals were viewed by Freud as having a constant amount of energy, or libido. Instincts preserved life (hunger) and pleasure (sex), the life force...