Josef Breuer (born January 15, 1842,Vienna, Austria—died June 20, 1925, Vienna) was an Austrian physician and physiologist who was acknowledged bySigmund Freud and others as the principal forerunner ofpsychoanalysis because of histreatment of the writer and social workerBertha Pappenheim.

Breuer found, in 1880, that he had relieved symptoms of what he diagnosed as “hysteria” in Pappenheim, whom he called Anna O. in hiscase study, after he had induced her to recall unpleasant past experiences underhypnosis. He concluded thatneurotic symptoms result from unconscious processes and will disappear when these processes become conscious. The case of Anna O. introduced Freud to thecathartic method (the “talking cure”) that was pivotal in his later work.

Breuer described his methods and results to Freud and referred patients to him. With Freud he wroteStudien über Hysterie (1895), in which Breuer’s treatment ofhysteria was described. Later disagreement on basic theories of therapy terminated their collaboration.

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Breuer’s earlier work dealt with the respiratory cycle, and in 1868 he described theHering-Breuer reflex involved in the sensory control of inhalations and exhalations innormal breathing. In 1873 he discovered the sensory function of the semicircular canals in theinner ear and their relation to positional sense or balance. He practicedmedicine and was physician to many members of the Viennese medical faculty.