Final answer:
In 1859, Sigmund Freud wrote about psychiatric disorders without apparent medical causes, laying the groundwork for psychoanalysis and highlighting the importance of the unconscious mind and childhood experiences in understanding these conditions.
Step-by-step explanation:
In 1859, Sigmund Freud wrote a paper describing psychiatric patients whose disorders appeared to lack medical causes for their distress. This work laid the foundation for his subsequent development of psychoanalytical theory. Freud was an Austrian neurologist interested in conditions such as hysteria and neurosis, which didn't have apparent physical causes. He believed that the unconscious mind held the key to understanding these disorders. Freud's psychoanalytic theory emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and early childhood experiences.
Freud's approach to psychoanalysis involved the "talking cure", a method he developed from his work with Joseph Breuer. This method allowed patients to talk about their experiences, dreams, and feelings, with the goal of revealing and addressing unconscious thoughts and suppressed memories that were causing their symptoms.