So what exactly did Dora do? I've tried hard to find out more about the story. But I do not have any copy of his Case Study on Dora here. However, I would like to know if there's any related essays that mention about Dora. (Since I don't know if there's any.) Please notify me. I am just trying to finish my report for literary psychoanalysis critism at this minute. Please get back to me ASAP! Thank you so much!

-- Eddie Hsu (eddie.hsu@msa.hinet.net), March 29, 2001

Answers

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. If you're asking for a quick summary on Dora and her problems, no quick summary is possible. If you're asking about her life history there are several places that provide that information. Her real name was Ida Bauer. She was in therapy with Freud for a relatively brief period for a series of hysteric symptoms. Frued does did not seem to help her much (indeed the cynic would claim he helped few of his patients). In fact, many have argued that psychoanalysis actually harmed her substantially. She had a fairly miserable adult life, poor health, and an unhappy marriage. Her one son was a reasonably successful musician -- a violinist as I recall. As a Jew her life became even more miserable after the Nazis invaded Austria, and she may have spent a month or two at Dachau. In any event she managed to escape to Paris and then to the US where she died, penniless in 1945.

-- David Schneider (sch@rice.edu), April 21, 2001.

Analyses of the Dora Case: these all involve Freud's use of dreams.

Banks, C. G. (1991). A dream of the incest taboo, exchange of women and seduction: A reinterpretation of Freud's Dora. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 14, 251-269.

Gabel, S. (1985). Sleep research and clinically reported dreams: Can they be integrated? Dora revisited. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 30, 185-205.

McCaffey, P. (1984). Freud and Dora: The artful dream. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Thompson, M. G. (1994). The truth about Freud's technique: The encounter with the real. New York: New York University Press. [Includes a new evaluation of Freud's analyses of Dora and the Rat Man in light of Heidegger's understanding of the truth]

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@fuller.edu), April 21, 2001.

It is difficult to summarize this substantial case. However, the basic premis focuses around a young girl, about 18 at the time, who was sent to Freud at the request of her father. The brief analysis was composed of two complicated dreams, both of which Freud interpreted to his own liking. Dora adamently disagreed with his theory that she wanted to have sex with her father's friend, Herr K. Freud, however, took her refusal as repression, and therefore believed he was correct. The disagreeing and frustration continued until Dora terminated the case prior to Freud's completion. Of course, this case has many, many more details and complications, but this may serve as a brief introduction.

-- Christine Murray (murray@oxy.edu), November 15, 2001.