Freud described his observations (with himself as subject) on the effects of cocaine, including its abolition of hunger and fatigue, the “exhilaration and lasting euphoria”. He also described its supposed non-addictiveness, calling it “absolutely harmless in long use”. He later bitterly regretted this misconception, as he himself nearly became addicted, and misuse of the drug contributed to the death of one of his dearest friends. Freud’s suggestion that cocaine might act by abolishing the effect of agencies that depress bodily feeling has since been confirmed, and his recognition of the drug’s anesthetizing qualities may have given Koller the idea to revolutionize eye surgery by using cocaine as the first local anesthetic. See No. 5678. English translation in St. Louis med. & surg. J., 1884, 47, 502-05. Revised second edition by Freud, Vienna, 1885. Also translated in Freud, The Cocaine Papers, Vienna/Zurich, 1963 and Freud, Cocaine Papers, R. Byck (ed.), New York, 1974.

Freud refuted the Wernicke–Lichtheim doctrine (Nos. 4623 & 4626) that the losses of function in aphasia were due to lesions to anatomically circumscribed centers corresponding to the various functions involved in language. He distinguished between defects in naming objects, which he called asymbolic aphasia, and defects in recognizing objects, for which he introduced the term “agnosia”. English translation, London, 1953.

The preliminary announcement of the results of the collaboration that was the starting point of psychoanalysis. It described work begun several years previously. See No. 4978.

The foundation of psychoanalysis. Using what they called the cathartic method, in which hysterical patients were made to describe the manifestations of their symptoms in detail, with or without hypnosis, Breuer and Freud were successful in providing the patients with temporary relief from symptoms. Breuer chose not to continue research on these patients. However, Freud, who had studied hypnosis with Charcot (No. 4995), as well as the psychotherapeutic methods of Liébault (Nos. 4994 & 4998) and Bernheim (No. 4995.1), used this work as the basis for development of the method of free association, and the essential psychoanalytic concepts of the unconscious, repression and transference. Abridged English translation, New York, 1909. First complete translation, London, Hogarth Press, 1956.

Freud gave an excellent description of the various forms of cerebral palsy, with precise classification of the different spastic symptoms; he also mentioned the extra-pyramidal symptoms. This work forms Bd. IX, II Theil, II Abt. of H. Nothnagel’s Specielle Pathologie und Therapie.  Translated into English by Lester A. Russin as Infantile cerebral paralysis (Coral Gables: University of Florida Press, 1968.)

Freud’s greatest work, the influence of which has been felt far beyond the psychiatric and medical community. Here he refined his understanding of the operation of the unconscious, interpreted dreams on the basis of wish-fulfillment theory, discussed displacement, the extensive appearance of symbols for repressed thought in conscious thought, regression, and the erotic nature of dreams. First English translation by A. A. Brill from the third German edition (New York: Macmillan, 1913). Digital facsimile of the 1900 edition from the Internet Archive at this link; of the 1913 English translation at this link.

An exposition of psychoanalytic theory for a popular audience. Includes description and examples of the well-known “Freudian slip”. English translation, London, 1914.

The work which Freud considered second in importance only to his Die Traumdeutung. Freud’s epochal theory of infantile sexuality linked the forces motivating the development of body and mind from earliest infancy. Infantile sexuality was a fact known, Freud said, to every nursemaid, yet the above work provoked and continues to provoke controversy in both scientific and popular sectors. English translation, 1910.

The first psychoanalytic investigation in art.

Freud's primary contribution to medical anthropology. First translated into English by A. A. Brill as Totem and taboo: Resemblances between the psychic lives of savages and neurotics (1919). Digital facsimile of the 1913 edition from the Internet Archive at this link; of the 1919 English translation from st.mary-ca.edu at this link. Retranslated by James Strachey in 1950; digital facsimile of the 1950 translation from the Internet Archive at this link.

See also: Abstracts of the standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, edited by Carrie Lee Rothgeb, with an introduction on reading Freud by Robert R. Holt. (New York: Jason Aronson, 1973). For biography see Ernest Jones, Sigmund Freud, life and work, 3 vols., London, 1953-57; and Peter Gay, Sigmund Freud: A life for our time, New York, 1988. For iconography see E. Freud, L. Freud, & I. Grubrich-Simitis, Sigmund Freud: His life in pictures and words, New York, [1978].

In January 2022 when I wrote this entry the English language text of this catalogue (dated 2004) was available as a PDF at this link.

Reprints selected portions of the 1913 A. A. Brill translation together essays by Masson and excerpts from Jung, Lacan, and Horney. Includes many full page or double-page color reproductions of works by modernist and surrealist artists; Masson's sidebars appear as booklets “hidden” in the full-spread artwork.

An interpretive exhibition catalogue explaining the relationship of Freud's large collection of antiquities preserved in the Freud Museum to ideas that Freud developed in psychoanalysis.