Anna O.
Bertha Pappenheim became known to the general public under the pseudonym of Miss "Anna O.", a patient of Josef Breuer. Her case history was described in Studies on Hysteria (Studien über Hysterie) (1895), which Breuer published together with Sigmund Freud. She is presented as the first case in which it was possible to "thoroughly investigate" hysteria and cause its symptoms to disappear. Her statement that being able to verbalize her problem helped her to unburden herself is in accordance with the treatment later denoted in psychoanalysis as the "catharsis theory". Accordingly, Freud described her as the "actual founder of the psychoanalytic approach". Based on this case study the assertion that "those with hysteria suffer for the most part from their reminiscences", in other words from traumatic memories which can be "processed" by relating them, was formulated for the first time.
Freud wrote:
Breuer’s findings are still today the foundation of psychoanalytic therapy. The statement that symptoms disappear with awareness of their unconscious preconditions has been confirmed by all subsequent research .
Freud specified psychoanalytic "therapy," but not theory. Psychoanalysis did not come into being until "Interpretation of Dreams" was written five years later.
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