Freud's work grew out of the observation that people are heavily influenced by their subconscious. In the beginning, he tried to access the subconscious by hypn

Freud's work grew out of the observation that people are heavily influenced by their subconscious. In the beginning, he tried to access the subconscious by hypnotizing people, but he wasn't very good at it and it didn't work on everyone. Then he tried to access the subconscious through free association, but not everyone is capable of just lying there and freely associating. He ultimately invented psychoanalysis more or less as a way of understanding people who could neither be hypnotized nor free-associate.