What term is best associated with Sigmund Freud?

The story behind the answer

Psychoanalysis is correct because Sigmund Freud founded this approach, proposing that unconscious conflicts, often rooted in childhood, shape thoughts and behavior. His methods—free association, dream analysis, and exploration of defense mechanisms—aimed to bring hidden motives to awareness. He also introduced the id, ego, and superego as interacting parts of the psyche.

Context helps: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) was developed much later by Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) by Marsha Linehan, and the Theory of Gravity by Isaac Newton (later refined by Einstein). Memory tip: Think “Freud’s couch” and “dreams” to link him to psychoanalysis—the original “talk therapy” focused on the unconscious.