Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneurosesFreud, Sigmund
Science
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Hysteria; Neuroses; Psychoanalysis
The supposition that we dealt here with an amour of childhood so
frequent in the etiology of hysteria was strengthened by the further
progress of the analysis which also showed simultaneous solutions for
individual frequently recurring details in the picture of paranoia. The
beginning of her depression commenced at the time of a disagreement
between her husband and her brother on account of which the latter no
longer visited her. She was always much attached to this brother and
missed him very much at this time. Besides this she spoke about a moment
in the history of her disease during which for the first time
“everything became clear,” that is, during which she became convinced
that her assumption about being generally despised and intentionally
annoyed was true. She gained this assurance during a visit of her
sister-in-law, who in the course of conversation dropped the words, “If
such a thing should happen to me I would not mind it.” Mrs. P. at first
took this utterance unsuspectingly, but when her visitor left her it
seemed to her that these words contained a reproach meaning that she was
in the habit of taking serious matters lightly, and since that hour she
was sure that she was a victim of common slander. On asking her why she
felt justified in referring those words to herself she answered that the
tone in which her sister-in-law spoke convinced her of it—to be sure
subsequently—This is really a characteristic detail of paranoia. I now
urged her to recall her sister-in-law’s conversation before the accusing
utterance, and it was found that she related that in her father’s home
there were all sorts of difficulties with the brothers, and added the
wise remark, “In every family many things happen which one would rather
keep under cover, and that if such a thing should happen to her she
would take it lightly.” Mrs. P. had to acknowledge that her depression
was connected with the sentences before the last utterance. As she
repressed both sentences which could recall her relations with her
brother, and retained only the last meaningless one, she was forced to
connect with it the feeling of being reproached by her sister-in-law;
but, inasmuch as the contents of this sentence offered absolutely no
basis for such assumption she disregarded it and laid stress on the tone
with which the words were pronounced. It is probably a typical
illustration for the fact that the misinterpretations of paranoia depend
on repression.
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