One study I found involving the case of a young girl named Anna O really caught my attention as it led to unprecedented discoveries in psychology. Around the time that her father developed tuberculosis and she devoted herself to caring for him, Anna began to experience illnesses that involved paralysis, involuntary eye movements, hydrophobia (not drinking or eating for days), hallucinations, and more. She fell into a state of hysteria, where she would awaken from naps in a state of mental instability, crying, "tormenting, tormenting". Freud noticed that when she was able to to talk of the hallucinations in the evening, she could bring herself out of her trance-like state and be fairly normal for the remainder of the night. Breuer and Freud therefore began treatment with a method that would develop into what we now know as "talking therapy", where the patient engages in conversations on a daily basis so the doctor might be able to find the psychological basis for hysteria. By doing so, Freud proved that hysteria has connections with previous traumatic events, regardless of their significance. For example, not only did the paralysis Anna experienced come from her inability to help her sick father, but an earlier event where a dog she didn't like drank from her glass led to the hydrophobia.
I would encourage everyone to dive deeper into Freud, as for me, I found there were so many fundamentals of psychology that I didn't know he contributed to. Attached is a picture of Anna O.
3 comments:
Sigmund Freud, for all of his more questionable practices and theories, is still called the father of modern psychology for a reason. He was by all accounts an imperfect man who didn't use the scientific method (leading to later psychologists having to either re-prove or debunk his original theories. But, I feel that his case study of Anna O was one of his most important discoveries he made. It is what eventually lead him to his theory of the unconscious, which was a radically new idea that laid the groundwork for psychology as we know it today. Either way, he inspired generations of artists and writers with his theories, even if some of his theories were radically false, we cannot forget the major impact he had on the culture of the western world.
Wow Freud actually making a point that's still reverent today! Despite all of the wack things he's hypothesized, I respect Freud for actually bring to attention that hysteria is more than likely caused by some kind of past trauma. I know during this time women who were deemed crazy were only prescribed "bed rest", which resulted in making women even more unstable. We see this very prominently in "The Yellow Wallpaper".
Anna Beth, I thought of the same thing! By far, "The Yellow Wallpaper" has been a work that has stuck with me very strongly throughout my high school English career. This is such a great blog post, Alana, because Freud did (clearly) have more to say and his intent in his work was for far greater purposes than for an English class to debate over what is a phallic symbol in terms of the dimension you look at it from... Thanks for sharing, Alana!
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