Freud's Dora: Analysis of a Case of Hysteria

Sigmund Freud, in Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, provides an example of the patriarchal abuse of power in the psychoanalytic setting. This abuse would be nothing new in that profession, were it not for the fact that Freud has hidden from himself the truth of what is occurring in his attempt to create out of the hysterical Dora a new human being more to his liking and approval. What is actually happening is that Freud himself has fallen in love with Dora, and every interpretation he makes of her case reflects his obsession with her, and his rage at the fact that she has shown the independence, audacity and wisdom to leave him before he has been able to re-create her in his own image.

This assertion may seem outlandish at first, but if we examine the case of Dora and Freud's interpretation (and manipulation) of it and her, we will see that it is not so outlandish at all. And even if the reader still maintains at the end that it is outlandish, the question must be asked, Is it any more outlandish than some of the claims made by Freud himself, who appears to see himself not as a psychoanalyst, but as a god, or God?

Consider, for example, Freud's claim that

I showed that dreams in general can be interpreted, and that after the work of interpretation has been completed they can be replaced by perfectly correctly constructed thoughts which find a recognizable position in the texture of the mind (Freud 8).

To this reader, Freud's words above appear to coincide with th

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er" to the psychoanalyst by her father just as her father turned her over to Herr K. in exchange for her father's being tacitly allowed to continue his affair with Frau K. When we consider the utter insanity of Dora's parents and the K.'s, it is a miracle that Dora found within her the strength, wisdom and independence to break away from the dominating Freud when she did. In any case, Freud writes that Dora's father "handed her over to me for psychotherapeutic treatment" (13). Freud sees Dora as an exotic animal of some sort who is to be turned into a woman by Freud---a heterosexual woman with none of her Lesbian traits, to be sure. In fact, Freud's analysis of her dreams and his conclusion that it is in reality Frau K. rather than Herr K. whom Dora desires sexually are actually manifestations of his own desire for Dora. The key to this fact is Freud's explanation of male daydreams, which focus on "pleasing a woman, of being preferred by her to other men. These phantasies are wish-fulfillments, products of frustration and desire" (114). Freud's conclusion that it was Frau K. who was the true love of her life (or, at least, or her life before her father "handed her over" to Freud for fixing and recreating) rather than Herr K. ac

Category: Psychology - F