Synopses & Reviews
Richard Skues finds the existing interpretation and literature on Anna O.--the leading case in Freud and Breuer's
Studies in Hysteria--to be in all fundamentals wrong, representing a modern-day fiction about the origins of psychoanalysis. This book offers a new appraisal, sensitive to the historical context, with the original documents re-examined.
Synopsis
In recent years historians of psychoanalysis have come to view Freud's case of Anna O. as a failure and have cast doubt on the very foundations of psychoanalysis itself. This new study challenges existing historical scholarship by providing an unparalleled review of the available evidence on the case and reaches new conclusions about its outcome.
Synopsis
This book offers a new appraisal, sensitive to the historical context, with the original documents re-examined.
About the Author
RICHARD SKUES is a Principal Lecturer in Social Science at the London Metropolitan University.
Table of Contents
Preface * Introduction: The Changing History of a Case History * PART 1: THE EVOLUTION OF THE CASE * The 1882 Documents * Subsequent Evidence * The Publication of the Case Study * Freud's Account - Reconstructions * Defence and Sexuality * Transference and the Faustian Imperative * PART 2: THE EVOLUTION OF THE LEGEND * The Birth of the Legend: Ernest Jones * The Development of the Legend: Henri Ellenberger * The Maturation of the Legend: The Derivative Literature * Conclusion