Why does Dora leave? Does she have good cause?
Statue of Sigmund Freud in London, with the Tavist...
English: Entrance to Freuds consulting room
Sigmund Freud QuoteDora most definitely has good causes to leave. Though the narration of the case-study sometimes strays from the actual patient-physician interaction, Freud, despite his progressive ideology seems to take an accusatory tone with Dora. For example, he uses words like "confess" when he talks about Dora divulging information to him. Furthermore, once in a particular analysis of her behavior, Freud says: "to prove to you...". Despite the fact that Freud may have had "unconventional" views on female sexuality there is no documentation of him validating Dora's behaviors during the session. Granted this was not a modern day counseling session, but any patient who feels that the physician is not "on her side" is bound to leave. Secondly, if this idea of "transference" really was a dynamic of Dora and Freud's relationship, the sessions were probably uncomfortable and painful for Dora. To me, however, Freud's explanation of this "transferrence" phenomenon just seems like an easy way for him to explain Dora's "running away."
On page 59, Freud offers his definition of a dream. As with the interpretive technique associated with the symptom, this is something we may want to go over in class to ensure we all follow the implications of his approach. In the meantime, I would ask two preliminary questions. First, how different is this from the way we habitually interpret dreams? Second, what does Freud's approach allow him to do that our colloquial approach does not?
The more colloquial interpretation of dreams is that they are inspired by events in our life that have stuck with us, or significantly impacted us in some way. However, "dreams as wish-fulfillments" indicates that they are not only representive of certain fixations, but oftentimes of...