Psychodynamic Perspective
Psychodynamic Perspective FREUD’S CASE STUDIES
ANNA O • Anna O (real name Bertha Pappenheim) was not actually Freud’s patient, she was a patient of Freud’s older friend Josef Breuer. However, Anna O can still claim the distinction of being the founding patient of psychoanalysis because Freud developed the first stages of his theory based on her case. It is, therefore, worth knowing a few details of her case. At the time of her illness, Anna was 21 years old and until the illness struck she had been healthy and intelligent and had shown no signs of neurosis1 . However, her feelings had always been exaggerated and she could be moody and she day-dreamed a great deal. Her illness fell into several phases: 1. Latent incubation - the early signs of her illness began when her father fell ill and she had to nurse him. Gradually her illness became so bad that she could no longer nurse her father. The main symptom at this stage was a severe cough. 2. Manifest illness - Breuer described this as a “psychosis of a peculiar kind” where she had some paralysis of the right arm and leg, a squint, severe disturbances of vision. She began to hallucinate and was abusive, threw things at people and accuse others of doing things to her. Later in the course of her illness she began to speak only in English (she was a native German speaker) but could still understand German! 3. After her Father’s death - sleepwalking added to the other symptoms and she could no longer understand German and began to refuse food.
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Neurosis often begins as a response to a stressor and is usually characterised by a generalised anxiety: the person is irritable, jumpy, finds it difficult to concentrate and make decisions, has trouble sleeping and may experience a whole range of physical symptoms. There is a form of neurosis (that Freud called hysteria) where the person experiences physical symptoms for which there is no detectable physical or bodily cause.
1
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Freud and Breuer suggested
ANNA O • Anna O (real name Bertha Pappenheim) was not actually Freud’s patient, she was a patient of Freud’s older friend Josef Breuer. However, Anna O can still claim the distinction of being the founding patient of psychoanalysis because Freud developed the first stages of his theory based on her case. It is, therefore, worth knowing a few details of her case. At the time of her illness, Anna was 21 years old and until the illness struck she had been healthy and intelligent and had shown no signs of neurosis1 . However, her feelings had always been exaggerated and she could be moody and she day-dreamed a great deal. Her illness fell into several phases: 1. Latent incubation - the early signs of her illness began when her father fell ill and she had to nurse him. Gradually her illness became so bad that she could no longer nurse her father. The main symptom at this stage was a severe cough. 2. Manifest illness - Breuer described this as a “psychosis of a peculiar kind” where she had some paralysis of the right arm and leg, a squint, severe disturbances of vision. She began to hallucinate and was abusive, threw things at people and accuse others of doing things to her. Later in the course of her illness she began to speak only in English (she was a native German speaker) but could still understand German! 3. After her Father’s death - sleepwalking added to the other symptoms and she could no longer understand German and began to refuse food.
•
1
Neurosis often begins as a response to a stressor and is usually characterised by a generalised anxiety: the person is irritable, jumpy, finds it difficult to concentrate and make decisions, has trouble sleeping and may experience a whole range of physical symptoms. There is a form of neurosis (that Freud called hysteria) where the person experiences physical symptoms for which there is no detectable physical or bodily cause.
1
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Freud and Breuer suggested