Studies on Hysteria

by Sigmund Freud, Josef Breuer, Jos Breuer, et al.

Book Overview

The cornerstone of psychoanalysis--and legacy of the landmark Freud/Breuer collaboration--featuring the classic case of Anna O. and the evolution of the cathartic method, in the definitive Strachey translation. Re-packaged for the contemporary audience with what promises to be an unconventional foreword by Irvin Yalom, the novelist and psychiatrist who imagined Breuer in When Nietzsche Wept.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465082769
• ISBN13: 9780465082766
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Should be required reading in public schools

I'm not disputing the first reviewer who gave the book one star because it is a poor translation. Strachey's translation is good enough, though, to make the book readable, and it should be read by everyone. Freud's clarity of thought and insight and pure intelligence is well represented in this book, and it serves as a decent introduction to elementary psychoanalysis.

The hidden drives beneath hysteria

A fascinating book that explores the hidden factors behind anxiety, written when Freud was still studying his first hysterical patients that became famous in the psychoanalytic literature. The collaboration with Breur was actually sealed with this book, but ironically it was also the end of their friendship. Apart from the psychoanalytic concepts, the reader can really enjoy the five case studies included in "Study on hysteria". Only one case study was written by Breur and this goes to show that Freud really wanted to go deep into the unconscious whereas Breur after the first patient didn't go any further; basically because he would have had to confront himself with the patient's sexual drives as well as his instincts. This is a very stimulating book that allows the reader to appreciate the kind of female patients affected by hysteria before the 20th century, that were not understood by most psychiatrists. Freud menaged to understand why the repression of the sexual instinct led to a neurosis.