Psychoanalytic theory: Entry for the Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th Edition

Psychoanalytic theory and practice originated in the late nineteenth century in the work of Sigmund Freud (1956-1939). It offers a distinctive way of thinking about the human mind and of responding to psychological distress. Psychoanalysis has travelled widely from its central European origins, and has evolved into a complex, multi-facetted and internally fractured body of knowledge situated at the interface between the human and natural sciences, and between clinical practice and academic theory. Notwithstanding critiques of its Eurocentric origins, psychoanalysis has been taken up in many different cultural contexts, perhaps most notably in Latin America but also in India, Japan and elsewhere. Its geography and spatiality have become topics for geographical study albeit primarily within the Anglophone literature (Cameron, 2006; Kingsbury, 2003).