A laundry treating apparatus includes a cabinet, a tub provided inside the cabinet, a drum rotatably provided inside the tub to accommodate laundry, a motor directly connected to a rotation shaft of the drum, and a controller configured to control the driving of the motor according to any one of a plurality of preset drum driving motions. The controller controls the rotation of the motor to receive a physical force greater than a static frictional force acting between the laundry and the drum from an inner surface of the drum during a process in which the laundry falls to be in contact with a portion of the drum when a first motion of the plurality of drum driving motions is selected.