Sigmund Freud and Hysterical Dora

At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1901 to be more precise, the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud, who is actually considered to be the father of psychology, wrote his “Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria,” most commonly known as Dora’s Case. This case history was based on the treatment of Ida Bauer, who received the pseudonym of Dora from Freud to preserve the secrecy of her identity. Dora was an eighteen-year-old girl who was sent to Freud for therapy by her father, who was at the time maintaining a secret love affair with a woman known as Frau K. The condition that Dora was suffering from, according to Freud, was hysteria.

The diagnosis of hysteria was reached at first due to everything that Dora was telling him about her life. Freud asserted that

If it is true that the causes of hysterical disorders are to be found in the intimacies of the patient’s psycho-sexual life, and that hysterical symptoms are the expression of their most secret and repressed wishes, then the complete elucidation of a case of hysteria is bound to involve the revelation of those intimacies and the betrayal of those secrets. This is exactly the way in which he carries on with his treatment of Dora. He tries to discover the many secrets he is sure Dora is hiding not only from him but also from herself. He believes that her unconscious is keeping important issues from her knowledge for a reason he is unaware of, but desperately wants to find out.

When he believes he has found what the secret was, he concludes that she is repressing her love for Herr K. Herr K was the husband of the woman with whom Dora’s father was having an affair with, a woman known as Frau K. Dora, at some point in time, used to feel deeply for Frau K, but then she spoke ill and false about her and her perspective on the woman changed. Meanwhile, Herr K is completely aware of the relationship between his wife and Dora’s father and he is at the same time trying to court Dora apparently into being his mistress. Furthermore, Dora assures Freud that she is very angry that her father seems to be using her, by means of offering her as a gift to Herr K in return for the favor of letting Dora’s father continue with the affair with Frau K. As a result, Dora holds a desire for revenge against her father.