1. adj. denoting an approach that derives from the classical psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud but with modifications and revisions that typically emphasize social and interpersonal elements over biological instincts. The term is not usually applied to the approaches of Freud’s contemporaries, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Jung, who broke away from his school quite early. Erik Erikson, Erich Fromm, Karen D. Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan, and ego psychologists such as Austrian-born U.S. psychoanalyst Heinz Hartman (1894–1970) are considered to be among the most influential neo-Freudian theorists and practitioners.

2. n. an analyst or theoretician who adopts such an approach.