This chapter ‘sets the scene’ for the rest of the book by exploring Freud’s concept of the traumatic neuroses and some of the key questions it raises. It begins by discussing the broader concept of trauma in Freud’s work, and critiquing the idea that although he originally argued that his patients’ psychoneuroses were the result of actual childhood sexual experiences, he abandoned this theory in 1897 in favour of a more intrapsychical theory which focused on the operations of the drive, fantasy, repression and the unconscious. One of the key examples of the traumatic neuroses discussed in the chapter is that of the ‘war neuroses’, which Freud became increasingly interested in in the wake of the Great War when he and some of his colleagues had direct experience of treating soldiers who were exhibiting a range of psychopathological symptoms relating to their experiences in combat. The chapter also critically examines Freud’s concept of the actual neuroses and proposes, contrary to the arguments of Verhaeghe and others, that in his later work Freud essentially abandoned this idea and replaced it with that of the traumatic neuroses.