Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (Collected Papers of Sigmund Freud) (Paperback)

~ Sigmund Freud (Author), Philip Rieff (Introduction) "In 1895 and 1896 I put forward certain views upon the pathogenesis of hysterical symptoms and upon the mental processes occurring in hysteria..." (more)
Key Phrases: somatic compliance, unconscious phantasies, unconscious phantasy, Drei Abhandlungen, Additional Note, Die Traumdeutung (more...)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist and psychologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Although his theories remain controversial until this day, Freud made a lasting impact on Western culture.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684829460
• ISBN-13: 978-0684829463
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #75,533 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars watching the detectives, May 19, 2000

By	Walter Fekete (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

By now it's fairly common knowledge that the side of Freud's work concerned with actual practice is, to understate the case, problematic. He is a brilliant thinker, and a beautiful writer, but his need to find the "truth" of his patients is quixotic at best. However, this very quality makes the Dora case one of the first great modern novels. What is revealed is not so much Dora's truth, as the unravelling of the position of interpretive authority - in this case, the psychoanalyst. Freud imagines himself absent from his analysis, but we see him intrude more and more into the frame as he investigates the secrets of Dora's mind. In this way, the story reads like detective fiction, making evidence less anchored in a tangible structure as it becomes more intent and focused. It's a great, juicy read. Just don't take it to seriously.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Through a glass darkly, December 22, 2003

By	A. Sebastian Catala "Chany Catala" (Wallingford, CT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's Dora's Sapphic longings for Frau K the guileful force in this brief but brilliant tour-de-force. In 1900 Sigmund Freud writes in his puzzling 'Dora an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria' that a girl of eighteen appears in his consulting office in Vienna suffering from insomnia aphonia and a nagging cough. Soon the celebrated psychoanalyst sets out in a search that would pale Sherlock Holmes. A shady psychiatric personae soon unfold. The doctoral sleuth is suspicious Dora's sexual wanting of her father, a prosperous industrialist, is at the root of her chronic sore throat bewilderment compulsive cough and general listlessness. But on the couch a fascinating couple promptly enter en scene. It's Herr K (dramatic cast is known only in code) a satyr-cuckold making sexual passes at Dora. His wife Frau K is meanwhile carrying a surreptitious affair with Dora's father, thus, at first, to Freud, Dora's rival. After some painful analysis and the interpretation of two dreams Freud soon reveals, with the elan of a seasoned novelist, the elusive dark truth. Sigmund Freud has found another alarming psychiatric discovery. The clever naturalist can now triumphantly prick his pin through his butterfly. In Tennessee Willaims' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' the disclosure of the protagonist's forbidden homosexual urges is the key in a hushed but healing ending. In Williams' morbid 'Suddenly Last Summer' it's the savage recollection of Sebastian's voracious pederasty that explode in a healing and stunning finale. At last bringing catharsis to the heroine's temporary madness. Through a glass darkly. But this moral transcendence is not allowed Dora since she flees her psychoanalysis before there can be any hope of cure. Her denouement only another greedy trance in Freud's vast mind. Dora exists forum prematurally but her analyst has discovered nevertheless that in her psychic androgyny it was the languid Frau K Dora truly desired. Please notice how I contrast 'An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria' with dark poetic cinema since I find in Dora moving thematic potential. As a visionary I've weighed this intoxicating Freudian allure for the screen. Though Freud closes with a vague explanation one never really knows what happened to Dora. I've picked up Freud not always successfully finding 'The Interpretation of Dreams' lengthly episodic and often inscrutable (my fault not Freud's) Though have enjoyed 'Totem and Taboo' 'The Future of an Illusion' etc. In luckily finding 'Dora' I knew I had discovered a literary masterpiece a rare blend of medical writing doubling as genial whodunit. If you like mysteries this is the text for you Sigmund Freud's unforgettable study on bisexuality. Poor Fraulein Dora, like Racine's Phaedre, coughing and moaning and gasping and sighing a slave to a lust in where there can't be a happy ending. It doesn't tale long to read this little book great for trains or seashore. A few unique pages filled with excitement. I often wonder whether Dora really existed or was a figment in Freud's fancy. Elementary! lets give Dora five stars.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful, August 14, 2002

By	Z. Liu (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Whatever can be said about Freud's conclusions, his psychoanalytical method was one of the great turning points from the 19th century to the 20th. Although many of his conclusions may not be pertinent universally as he may have thought, especially the family romance--Oedipus complex, the way he tackles the neuroses of late 19th century Vienna is indeed masterful.

What matters here is the method, which has matured since the early cases in the Studies on Hysteria, which this makes a good companion for. The Dora case is unique in that Freud does not come to any sort of conclusion, the analysis is ended abruptly by the patient (or rather the patient's father). Whereas in Studies, the method is incomplete, here, the method is simply not carried to its conclusions. Both reveal much of how Freud's thought developed.

Freud says explicitly in the preface that the reader should be familiar with dream interpretation, and that he will not repeat what he had said in his Interpretation of Dreams. It should still be possible to appreciate the genius behind the work, even if some of the conclusions about the dreams may perhaps seem like jumps.