Breuer, Freud and the case of Anna O: A re-examination

A re-reading of Studies on Hysteria: the Freud-Breuer break revisited.

“…Hirschmuller (1978Hirschmuller ( / 1989, who challenged Freud's account of his appeal to Breuer's daughter as witness, had previously also emphasized the importance of these additional case reports of patients with undisguised sexual symptoms, although Hirschmuller doubted that Breuer used the cathartic method to treat them. Reeves (1982) proposed that we take the phrase attributed to Anna O., "Now Dr. Breuer's baby is coming," as a reference to the anniversary of the conception of Breuer's daughter Dora, whose birth on March 11 would make her conception approximately between June 4 and June 11, 1881. Because the patient was re-living each day as it had occurred a year earlier, her alleged (1982), moreover, the finding of "seven other case studies by Breuer, all case reports of patients with undisguised sexual symptoms, although Hirschmuller doubted that Breuer used the cathartic method to treat them.…”

“…Hirschmüller (1978/1989) stated unequivocally: “The Freud–Jones account of the termination of the treatment of Anna O. should be regarded as a myth” (p. 131). According to Reeves (1982), moreover, the finding of “seven other case studies by Breuer, all employing the same cathartic technique, six of which were begun after his treatment of Anna O…. effectively disposes of Jones's contention that Breuer was unnerved by his involvement with the case” (p. 210).…”

“…Reeves (1982) proposed that we take the phrase attributed to Anna O., “Now Dr. Breuer's baby is coming,” as a reference to the anniversary of the conception of Breuer's daughter Dora, whose birth on March 11 would make her conception approximately between June 4 and June 11, 1881. Because the patient was re-living each day as it had occurred a year earlier, her alleged remark makes sense as a recognition of this event in Breuer's life.…”

“…“Breuer's apparent repudiation (or so it appeared to Freud) of all that they had jointly stood for” was manifested in his criticism of Freud's overgeneralizations: “In essence, what Breuer was saying about Freud's latest innovation (his theory of defence and repression) was that whilst descriptively it was full of interest, scientifically , it was lacking a true basis in hard empirical data ( S.E. 2, p. 236)” (Reeves, 1982, p. 213).…”