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Definition
“Dora” is a pseudonym given by Sigmund Freud to Ida Bauer, an 18-year-old girl whom he treated for hysteria. The analysis was brief, lasting from October to December of 1900, and was brought to an end by Bauer. Freud wrote the case from memory in January of 1901 shortly after treatment concluded. He published it as an elaborated case history in 1905. The title of the case history, “Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria,” alludes to the incomplete nature of the treatment and to Freud’s dissatisfaction with its premature termination. Dora is Freud’s first, and arguably most famous, published psychoanalytic case study; it is also his most controversial.
Background and Clinical Picture
Dora (Ida Bauer) was born in Vienna in 1882 to a middle-class Jewish family who had immigrated to Vienna from Bohemia. Dora was the younger daughter of Philipp and Katharina Bauer and had an older brother, Otto, who later became a leading member in the Austrian Social...
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References
Decker, H. S. (1982). The choice of a name: “Dora” and Freud’s relationship with Breuer. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 30, 113–136.
Decker, H. S. (1991). Freud, Dora, and Vienna 1900. New York: The Free Press.
Erikson, E. (1962). Reality and actuality. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 10, 451–474.
Freud, S. (1900). The interpretation of dreams. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. VI. London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1901). The psychopathology of everyday life. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. VI. London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1997). Fragment of an analysis of a case of hysteria. In P. Rieff (Ed.), Dora: An analysis of a case of hysteria (pp. 1–112). New York: Touchstone. (Original work published 1905).
Malcolm, J. (1982). Psychoanalysis: The impossible profession. New York: Random House.
Marcus, S. (1976). Freud and Dora: Story, history, case history. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Science, 5, 389–442.
Moi, T. (1985). Representation of patriarchy: Sexuality and epistemology in Freud’s Dora. In C. Bernheimer & C. Kahane (Eds.), In Dora’s case: Freud-hysteria-feminism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ornstein, P. H. (1993). Did Freud understand Dora? In B. Magid (Ed.), Freud’s case studies: Self-psychological perspectives. Hillsdale: Analytic Press.
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Tsuman, L. (2017). Dora. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_567-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_567-1
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