Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Psychanalysis \Psy`cha*nal"y*sis\, n. [Psycho- + analysis.]
   A method or process of psychotherapeutic analysis based on
   the work of Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856- --) of Vienna. The
   method rests upon the theory that hysteria is
   characteristically due to repression of desires consciously
   rejected but subconsciously persistent; it consists in a
   close analysis of the patient's mental history, stress being
   laid upon the dream life, and of treatment by means of
   suggestion. -- {Psy*chan`a*lyt"ic}, a. --
   {Psy`cha*nal"y*sist}, n.