[3] His studies in medicine enabled him to take a position at the Burghölzli Swiss Mental Hospital, where Eugen Bleuler practiced.

He was the analyst of Melanie Klein during the years 1924–1925, and of a number of other British psychoanalysts, including Edward Glover and Alix Strachey.

He was a mentor for an influential group of German analysts, including Karen Horney, Helene Deutsch, and Franz Alexander.

[5] In the anal stage, when the training in cleanliness starts too early, conflicts may result between a conscious attitude of obedience and an unconscious desire for resistance.

In addition, Abraham based his understanding of manic-depressive illness on the study of the painter Segantini: an actual event of loss is not itself sufficient to bring the psychological disturbance involved in melancholic depression.

He analyzed various myths suggesting their relation to dreams (1909) and wrote an interpretation of the spiritual activities of the Egyptian monotheistic Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1912).