Anna O.
A close friend, mentor, and collaborator with Sigmund Freud, Breuer is perhaps best known for his work with Anna O. (the pseudonym of Bertha Pappenheim), a woman suffering from "paralysis of her limbs, and anaesthesias, as well as disturbances of vision and speech."
Breuer observed that her symptoms were reduced or disappeared after she described them to him. Anna O. humorously called this procedure chimney sweeping. She also coined the more serious appellation for this form of therapy, "her talking cure," which is widely regarded as the basis of Freudian psychoanalysis.
Ernest Jones considered: "Freud was greatly interested in hearing of the case of Anna O, which made a deep impression on him"; and in his 1909 Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Freud generously pointed out: "I was a student and working for my final examinations at the time when Breuer, first (in 1880-2) made use of this procedure. Never before had anyone removed a hysterical symptom by such a method."
Freud and Breuer documented their discussions of Anna O., along with other case studies, in their 1895 book, Studies on Hysteria. These discussion of Breuer's treatment of Anna O. became "a formative basis of Freudian theory and psychoanalytic practice; especially the importance of fantasies (in extreme cases, hallucinations), hysteria, and the concept and method of catharsis which were Breuer's major contributions."
The two men became increasingly estranged at the same time, however, and from a Freudian standpoint, "while Breuer, with his intelligent and amorous patient Anna O., had unwittingly laid the groundwork for psychoanalysis, it was Freud who drew the consequences from Breuer's case."
Read more about this topic: Josef Breuer