Dora

The whole case history centers on “Dora,” a pseudonym for Ida Bauer, an eighteen-year-old girl with hysteria that Freud treated in the late nineteenth century. She began experiencing hysterical symptoms when she was eight years old, which culminated in a series of physical and behavioral issues that led her father to bring her to Freud for treatment.

Even though Dora was a real person, everything we know about her from reading the case history is through Freud’s perspective. He describes Dora as an attractive and intellectually precocious young girl; however, when her hysterical symptoms began to increase, she was perpetually in “low spirits,” and was on bad terms with her parents (16). She began to avoid social interaction and instead focused her attention on attending lectures and self-study. Yet, beyond her hysterical symptoms, Dora expressed loving and maternal tendencies, fostering close relationships with Frau K. and her...