In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Austrian Sigmund Freud, physiologist and psychiatrist, laid the foundations of psychoanalysis as a therapeutic method with his studies and revolutionized the way modern man perceives concepts such as consciousness and sexuality.

In the work The Civilization and Its Discontents (Das Unbehagen in der Kultur), written in 1929, Freud addresses the fundamental conflicts between civilization and the individual, recognizing the primary problem as the contradiction between the individual's pursuit of freedom and civilization's demand for conformity and suppression of instincts.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]