The Anna O case study as edited by Peter Gay in The Freud Reader roots the revelation of hysteria in women. “Hysteria, derived from the Greek word for womb or uterus, was considered a symptom of woman’s insatiable and/or dislocated sexual desire” (Starr). Plato described the “wandering womb” as a lustful, angry, and suffocating animal, ravenous for release. Lacking sexual satisfaction, it was thought to pull up into the throat, causing the choking and shortness of breath associated with hysteria (Starr). Hysteria became a diagnosis for people who had numerous symptoms such as spasm, speech problems without any medical evidence. It is easy to see through this account, that the symptoms of hysteria were also believed to be rooted within the core of the female genitalia earlier in history. Freud takes on the Anna O case in 1885 and monitors her behavior through numerous states of her ailment as hysteria was believed to have no known cure:
I at once recognized the seriousness of the physical disturbance with which I have to deal. Two entirely distinct states of consciousness were present which alternated very frequently and without warning and which became more and more differentiated in the course of the illness. (63)
He notes that as time progresses in the case, even her moments of relatively clear consciousness become invaded with these disturbances.“In one of these states she recognized her surroundings; she was melancholy and anxious, but relatively normal. In the other, she was hallucinated and was ‘naughty’- that is to say, she was abusive” (63).
This landmark case is also cited as being the origin of psychoanalysis – the talking cure, as founded by both Freud and Breuer but the term coined by Anna O. Freud describes Anno O’s behaviour when he undertook her treatment: “There were extremely rapid changes of mood leading to excessive but quite temporary high spirits, and at other times, severe anxiety, stubborn opposition to every therapeutic effort and frightening hallucinations of black snakes” (64). It is also drawn upon that Anna O has encountered some personal afflictions like the nursing and ultimate death of her father that could possibly affect her mental stability and capacity of cognitive consciousness.
Freud did recognize the significant part that sick nursing played in “the pre-history of hysteria” (1893-1895, p.161) What he failed to realize however, was that the “emotion work” which women’s sick nursing entailed and the social and economic powerlessness that they experienced were not simply characteristic of his patient’s personal histories… but as a syndrome related to the social conditions of middle-class women in turn-of-the-century Vienna. (Pierce)
The cultural aspects of life for women in that time period surrounding her illness are not acknowledged fully in the Anna O case, it can be said that her whole ailment could originate back to the construction of her surroundings and the environment of which her circumstances of life events played out. Nonetheless, Freud’s assertations of her ailment lead way to the diagnosis of her condition and his ultimate treatments of her symptoms through the talking cure. During the course of her treatment she would say that things were tormenting her and at a climax of her illness, she was unable to properly speak and successfully conjugate verbs. At one point, she became as Freud puts it “completely deprived of words” so much so that at one point she became unintelligible.
Throughout history, it is interesting to note that the intellectuals prior to Freud have had adamant opinions about the designation of hysteria:
Since the time of Hippocrates until the early 20th century, hysteria was associated with the pathology of female sexuality and reproduction. As such, the female genitals became the site of medical attention and intervention.
This distinction of hysteria being associated and attributed to female sexuality is one that can be dignified throughout history. It was indeed Plato who described the vagina as the ‘wandering womb’ in regards to the encompassing concept of hysteria. Before numerous technological advances and inventions, bizarre acts of stimulation were considered standard medical practise. “Genitals were massaged and electrically stimulated as well as shocked, cauterized, and surgically altered.” While all these interventions are relevant to an understanding of the medical approach to hysteria—indeed they are “two sides of the same coin of the patriarchal, medical control of female sexuality” (Starr).
Through the discourse of the Anna O case in The Freud Reader it becomes apparent that perhaps Freud has been genitally stimulating her. “Early written medical references to the practice of genital stimulation are unequivocally direct and explicit as to the sexual nature of the symptoms and their treatment” (Starr). Although there is no direct evidence to support this, it is easy to see the parallels between what other practitioners were doing for treatment at that time frame. If hysteria was incited in women because of a lack of sexual satisfaction, so to speak, it is easy to see the connection of the appropriated and hopefully de-sexualized ‘genital massage’ by physicians. Through the rhetoric used in the discourse of the Anna O case, the reader gets a sense of Freud’s very strong opinions about her condition; he does seem to recognize the circumstances of her situation in regards to the death of her father as playing a role in the decline of her health and mental stability.
When taking into consideration the intersections of genital stimulation as a treatment to hysteria and historical timeframes, it becomes evident that technological advances largely have a role to play in the diminishing diagnosis of hysteria over time. It is also interesting to note that the cultural designation of the women’s role in society can have an intersection with the perceived sexual ailment that was associated with hysteria. This could also be an indication of constuctionism that has roots in both social and cultural aspects of Anna O’s situation sense the 1800’s are marked with the end of the Victorian era, when any expression of sexuality was considered an outrage. Perhaps a connection is proven between the repression of sexual desires and the diagnosis of hysteria rooted in genital stimulation for treatment. This could have been an issue effecting Anno O and her unconscious, directly playing into her ailment at the time of Freud’s analysis.
Works Cited:
Freud, Sigmund, and Peter Gay. The Freud reader. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. Print
Pierce, Jennifer L. “The Relation Between Emotion Work And Hysteria: A Feminist
Reinterpretation Of Freud’s Studies On Hysteria.” Women’s Studies 16.3/4 (1989):
255. Academic Search Premier. Web. 08 Apr. 2012.
Starr, Karen E., and Lewis Aron. “Women On The Couch: Genital Stimulation And The Birth Of
Psychoanalysis.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues 21.4 (2011): 373-392. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 08 Apr. 2012.
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