Brill, an active exponent of psychoanalysis, published this book in 1912 and dedicated it to Freud. Brill hoped to refute false conceptions of psychoanalysis and to encourage interest in Freud's works. Additionally, Brill applies Freud's theories of the neuroses, interpretation of dreams, sexual theories, and psychopathology to his own studies of patients in the New York State Hospital—studies that were to revolutionize mental health policy in hospitals and abolish antiquated approaches to the treatment of the insane