ABSTRACT

This chapter shows that Studies on Hysteria provides a ground plan for Sigmund Freud’s entire life of theory construction. Freud and Josef Breuer proposed an explanation in terms of a tendency to dissociation and with it hypnoid states to account for the phenomenon. Freud explains that the splitting can be understood in terms of an incompatibility between “the ego and some idea presented to it” The difficulties and disadvantages of the cathartic procedure are Freud’s first concern. He notes that it is both laborious and time-consuming and very demanding on both patient and clinician. From a clinical perspective, Freud considered that it was his work as a therapist to overcome resistance on the part of the patient. Freud’s procedural principles can only be explained or justified in the light of his theoretical hypotheses concerning the split psyche and the two arms of the diagnostic fulcrum.