Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) created psychoanalytic theory and psychotherapy. He believed unconscious sexual drives and dreams provided insight into human behavior. Freud analyzed the mind into conscious, preconscious, and unconscious parts. The unconscious consists of the id, ego, and superego. The id seeks pleasure, ego mediates reality, and superego acts as a conscience. Psychoanalytic criticism applies Freudian techniques to interpret texts and view characters as projections of the author's psyche, revealing unconscious desires, anxieties, and childhood traumas. It examines works for psychological conflicts and seeks to understand characters and relationships in psychological terms.