Anna O
social work in Germany.
Anna O. was the pseudonym
given to one of the patients of
physician Josef Breuer. Her case
was described in the book that
Breuer wrote with Sigmund Freud,
Studies on Hysteria. Bertha
Pappenheim was her real name
and she had initially sought
Breuer's help with a series of
symptoms that included visual
disturbances, hallucinations,
partial paralysis, and speech
problems. Breuer diagnosed the
young woman with hysteria and
later discussed her case with
Freud who developed his own
ideas of what lay at the root of
Anna O.'s condition.
Her treatment played an
important role in the
establishment and development of
psychoanalysis.
Anna O's Real Name
Bertha Pappenheim
Best Known For
Anna O. was a patient of physician
Josef Breuer.
She coined the phrase "talking
cure."
Made significant contributions to
Birth and Death
February 27, 1859 - May 28, 1936
Anna O's Significance in
Psychology
Bertha Pappenheim referred to as
Anna O. in the case history, came
to Josef Breur for treatment for
what was then known as hysteria.
While caring for her dying father,
Pappenheim experienced a range
of symptoms that included partial
paralysis, blurred vision,
headaches, and hallucinations.
During the course of
treatment, which lasted from 1880
to 1882, Breuer found that talking
about her experiences seemed to
offer Pappenheim some relief from
her symptoms. She dubbed the
treatment the "talking cure."
While Freud never actually
met Pappenheim, her story
fascinated him and served as the
basis for Studies on Hysteria
(1895), a book co-written by
Breuer and Freud. Breuer’s
description of her treatment led
Freud to conclude that hysteria
was rooted in childhood sexual
abuse.
 Freud’s insistence on
sexuality as a cause eventually led
to a rift with Breuer, who did not
share this view on the origination
of hysteria. "The plunging into
sexuality in theory and practice is
not to my taste," Breuer explained.
While the friendship and
collaboration soon ended, Freud
would continue his work in the
development of talk therapy as a
treatment for mental illness.
Pappenheim's case also
influenced the development of the
free association technique. Breuer
used hypnosis during treatment
sessions, but found that allowing
Pappenheim to talk freely about
whatever came into her mind was
often a good way to improve
communication.
Freud himself once
described Anna O. as the true
founder of the psychoanalytic
approach to mental health
treatment. Five years later, Freud
published his book The
Interpretation of Dreams, which
formalized much of his
psychoanalytic theory.
While Breuer and Freud may
have painted the picture that
Breuer's treatment cured Anna O.
of her symptoms, records
indicated that she became
progressively worse and was
eventually institutionalized. "So
the famous first case he treated
together with Breuer and which
was vastly praised as an
outstanding therapeutic success
was nothing of the sort," Carl
Jung, a former Freud disciple,
noted in 1925.
Parents
Mother, Amalia Nathanson,
was nineteen years old when she
married Jacob Freud, aged
thirty-nine.
Several months after his return
Freud married Martha Bernays,
the daughter of a prominent
Jewish family whose ancestors
included a chief rabbi of Hamburg
and Heinrich Heine. She was to
bear six children, one of whom,
Anna Freud, was to become a
distinguished psychoanalyst in her
own right. Although the glowing
picture of their marriage painted
by Ernest Jones in his biography
of Freud has been nuanced by
later scholars, it is clear that
Martha Bernays Freud was a
deeply sustaining presence during
her husband’s tumultuous career.