At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the Austrian Sigmund Freud, physiologist and psychiatrist, laid the foundations of psychoanalysis as a therapeutic method through his studies and revolutionized the way modern man perceives concepts such as consciousness and sexuality.

In the work "Literature, Art and Psychoanalysis" (Psychoanalytische Scudien an Werken den Dichtung und Kunst, 1924), a purely artistic field of psychoanalytic study is chosen. Freud examines what literary or any other works reveal about human psychology, both of the creator and of those who partake in them. The unconscious is once again present, and the representations of art arise from various causes, such as the fear of death and sexual instincts.