The stressing of psychological causes of mental illness
separated this small group of physicians from
both their own profession and academic psychology.
Theirs was not an easy struggle, but they persisted; in
the end, they had convinced the medical profession,
academic psychology, and the public that unconscious
processes must be taken into consideration in
understanding why people act as they do. Sigmund
Freud was the leader of this group of rebels, but before
we examine his work, we consider some of the
antecedents of his work.