Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) stands as the progenitor of psychoanalysis and one of the most pivotal thinkers of the 20th century. Born in Freiberg, now in the Czech Republic, he relocated to Vienna during his early years, where he subsequently spent the majority of his professional life.
Initially trained as a neurologist, Freud's burgeoning interest in psychopathology led him to establish psychoanalysis. The most precise and detailed definition of the term can be found in Freud's own preface to Max Marcuse's 1922 "Dictionary of Sexology." According to Freud, "psychoanalysis" is:
1) firstly, a method for investigating psychological processes otherwise inaccessible;
2) secondly, a treatment against neurotic disorders, which is based on such investigation;
3) thirdly, a body of psychological knowledge obtained in this manner, which gradually accumulates and converges into a new scientific field.
So, as we can see, psychoanalysis is primarily a method of investigation, an epistemic tool first and foremost. In many cases, such a method of investigation turns out to be an excellent therapeutic method as well. Any therapeutic effect is however invariably dependent on the primacy of the epistemic function of psychoanalysis. In other words, therapeutic benefits arise insofar as the epistemic goal is attained, although they do not just follow suit: in psychoanalysis, that between knowledge and therapy is not a logical implication. For them to arise, therapeutic benefits should not be chased directly: this very fact alone precludes any account of psychoanalytic treatment as psychotherapy. The attainment of objective knowledge about the subject under analysis must always be the sole legitimate goal of the treatment.
Freud passed away in London in 1939, following his flight from the Nazi Anschluss in Austria.
I post here a video that describes why solely the acceptance of a cognitive purpose in a psychic treatment can ultimately determine the possibility of therapeutic efficacy. Indeed, the standard medical-pharmacological research setting is unable to demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment because it is unable to distinguish the aspects of suggestion from the specific results of the treatment. The Freudian approach is, on the contrary, able to distinguish the theoretical validity of constructions from suggestion because it moves within an alternative paradigm that gives autonomy to clinical research by devising an intra-clinical experimental protocol. From this perspective, psychoanalytic practice is knowledge-oriented and not healthcare-oriented.