This text charts the early history of the modern psychoanalytic movement through the personalities that influenced its development. Many of the early theories were discussed at the Wednesday meetings of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and extracts from the minutes of these meetings are included here. Of all the splits that characterized these early years, none was more heated than the acrimonious split between Freud and Adler. From a relationship of mutual respect and collaboration the two men had an infamous nine-year disagreement in the development of their schools of psychotherapy.