Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneurosesFreud, Sigmund
Science
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Hysteria; Neuroses; Psychoanalysis
Her mien was not in accord with the pain which the pinching of the
muscles and skin were supposed to excite. It probably harmonized better
with the content of the thoughts which were behind the pain and which
were evoked in the patient by irritating that part of the body
associated with them. I have repeatedly observed similar significant
expressions on irritating hyperalgesic zones in unmistakable cases of
hysteria. The other gestures evidently corresponded to the slightest
indications of a hysterical attack.
We could not at that time find any explanation for the unusual
localization of the hysterogenic zone. That the hyperalgesia chiefly
concerned the muscles gave material for reflection. The most frequent
affliction causing the diffuse and local pressure sensitiveness of the
muscles is the rheumatic infiltration of the same, the common chronic
muscular rheumatism about which aptitude to mask nervous affections I
have already spoken. The consistency of the painful muscles in Miss v.
R. did not contradict this assumption, as there were many hard cords in
the muscle masses which seemed to be especially sensitive. There was
probably also an organic change in the muscles, in the assumed sense,
upon which the neurosis rested and which significance was markedly
exaggerated by the neurosis.
The therapy followed out was based on a supposition of a mixed
affection. We recommended the continuation of a systematic massage and
faradization of the sensitive muscles without regard to the pain
produced, and in order to remain in communication with the patient I
undertook the treatment of her legs by means of strong Franklin’s
sparks. To her question whether she should force herself to walk we
answered decidedly in the affirmative.
We thus attained a slight improvement. She particularly liked the
painful shocks of the influence machine and the stronger they were the
more they seemed to suppress her pains. My colleague meanwhile prepared
the soil for the psychic treatment, and when after four weeks of sham
treatment I proposed the same and gave the patient some explanations
concerning the procedures and its effects I found a ready understanding
and only slight resistances.
The work which then began became eventually the most arduous that ever
befell my lot, and the difficulty of giving an account of this work
ranks well with the obstacles that had to be overcome. For a long time,
too, I did not understand the connection between the history of the
disease and the affliction, a thing which should really have been caused
and determined by this row of events.
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