'I very soon had an opportunity to interpret Dora's nervous coughing as the outcome of a fantasized sexual situation.' A Case of Hysteria, popularly known as the Dora Case, affords a rare insight into how Freud dealt with patients and interpreted what they told him. The 18-year-old 'Dora' was sent for psychoanalysis by her father after threatening suicide; as Freud's enquiries deepened, he uncovered a remarkably unhappy and conflict-ridden family, with several competing versions of their story. The narrative became a crucial text in the evolution of his theories, combining his studies on hysteria and his new theory of dream-interpretation with early insights into the development of sexuality. The unwitting preconceptions and prejudices with which Freud approached his patient reveal his blindness and the broader attitudes of turn-of-the-century Viennese society, while his account of 'Dora's' emotional travails is as gripping as a modern novel. This new translation is accompanied by a substantial introduction which sets the work in its biographical, historical, and intellectual context, and offers a close and critical analysis of the text itself. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

An appealing and intelligent eighteen-year-old girl to whom Freud gives the pseudonym "Dora" is the subject of a case history that has all the intrigue and unexpected twists of a first-rate detective novel. Freud pursues the secrets of Dora's psyche by using as clues her nervous mannerisms, her own reports on the peculiarities of her family, and the content of her dreams. The personalities involved in Dora's disturbed emotional life were, in their own ways, as complex as she: an obsessive mother, an adulterous father, her father's mistress, Frau K., and Frau K.'s husband, who had made amorous advances toward Dora. Faced with the odd behavior of her family and friends, and unable to confront her own forbidden sexual desires, Dora falls into the destructive pattern of a powerful hysteria. in this influential and provocative case history, Freud uses all his analytic genius and literary skill to reveal Dora's inner life and explain the motives behind her fixation on her father's mistress. -- from back cover.

Cesare Romano revisits Dora's clinical case in light of Freud's own seduction theory. His central thesis is that Freud failed to follow through with his initial proposition of confirming his theories on the traumatic aetiology of hysteria. He also suggests a new dating for the duration of Dora's therapy, placing the beginning of the analysis within the context of Freud's concurrent and recent life events. A detailed analysis of Dora's first dream shows that Freud did not go back to Dora's first infantile traumas, but stopped instead at the period of her infantile masturbation. In analysing this dream, Romano's theory begins to take shape around the idea that Dora suffered an early trauma: possibly, a sexual abuse inflicted by her father. Drawing on Ferenczi, the author uses the notion of the 'traumatolytic function of the dream' to show that Dora, through her two dreams, was elaborating her early sexual trauma. Dora's analysis is investigated alongside what was happening in Freud's life at the time of the therapy.

-- The Women's Review of Books

Freud’s Dora case and contemporary debates on gender, sexuality and queer theory ‘Dora’ is one the most important and interesting case studies Sigmund Freud conducted and later described. It constitutes a key text in his oeuvre and finds itself at the crossroads of his studies in hysteria, the theory of sexuality and dream interpretation. The Dora case is both a literary and theoretically ground-breaking text and an account of a ‘failed’ treatment. In Dora, Hysteria and Gender renowned Freud scholars reflect on the Dora case, presenting various innovative and controversial perspectives and elaborating the significance of the text for contemporary debates on gender, sexuality and queer theory. This volume is of interest for psychoanalysts and scholars working on psychoanalysis, sexuality, gender, queer theory, philosophical anthropology and literary studies. Contributors: Rachel B. Blass (Heythrop College, University of London), Daniela Finzi (Sigmund Freud Foundation), Esther Hutfless (University of Vienna), Ulrike Kadi (Medical University of Vienna), Ilka Quindeau (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences), Beatriz Santos (University Paris VII Diderot), Philippe Van Haute (Radboud University Nijmegen), Herman Westerink (Radboud University Nijmegen), Jeanne Wolff-Bernstein (Sigmund Freud University in Vienna)

A brilliantly original exploration of the interface between feminism, psychoanalysis, semiotics and film theory.