Release of new documentation reveals previously unknown Freud case
The History of Sophie von A.
In 1902, the pioneer of modern psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, examined a young married woman. With the release of documents held in the Institut fur Geschichte der Medizin der Universitat, Vienna and some of the Fliess Papers from the Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Berlin, we may now piece together the details of this extraordinary case.
From Freud's notebooks: "I first saw the patient Sophie von A. on the 6th of May. She was young and attractive and dressed in green (subsequently I was to observe that she was not to be seen in any other colour) and I particularly noticed that any personal adornments -- rings, necklaces -- were of silver. She reclined on my couch in the consulting room without the least hesitation and appeared calm and relaxed. Her very immobility later struck me as interesting." [In another part of the notebook Freud was to not his wife's displeasure [1] about this patient lying on the famous couch at Berggasse 19, although by this date Freud had established the procedure as a normal part of the consultation.]
From an account by
Wilhelm Fliess
[Fliess was a colleague and ally of Freud in the early years]:
"I was present on one occasion during a consultation with the young woman known
as Sophie A. Part of the session went as follows:
Freud: "This stress
and anxiety now, you feel that your husband perhaps is somewhat negligent of
you. How often are these feelings occurring?"
Sophie A: "Herr Professor, sometimes I thing that for a fortnight at
a time he pays me no attention at all."
Freud: "I take it, you mean conjugal attentions?"
Sophie A: "Yes."
Freud: "And at such times you suffered from the lassitude
which earlier you have complained of?"
Sophie A: "The symptoms of this depression would often commence with
a strange feeling of slow deflation, accompanied by a sense of sinking down.
At such periods this feeling of emptiness might also render me quite incapable
of simple physical action."
[Fliess notes an unusual occurrence in relation to this last remark, observing that at the end of the consultation, Freud showed the young woman to the door, but on relinquishing his arm she collapsed on the floor.]
From Freud's notebook: "Sophie A. insists that her earliest childhood memory takes the form of a dream. This 'Ur-Memory' has two parts, as thus: an initial impression of a harsh clangour, likened to the striking of great bells... a terrifying sensation of being stretched in each limb, though without any impression of pain... a clearer image of some coarse, dark-featured men with hard, grimy faces engaged in 'manipulating' her. The second part of this 'memory' is similar in that the men and background are also present, but now the prevailing sensation are of great heat in all her joints, and the same time a bright, almost dazzling, intermittent light. When asked if this was painful, she replied to the contrary -- it was frightening, but also pleasurable, and she went further to make a significant analogy, that it was indelibly associated in her mind with the first public display of fireworks she had seen as a young child, in the grounds of the Schonbrun Palace."
From W Fliess's account:
"During another interview, the Herr Professor sought to elucidate certain aspects
of the sexual life of Sophie A.
Freud: "Were your experiences with these two lover in any ways different?"
Sophie A: "Indeed, very different. Herr B [real name suppressed] who
was a friend of my husband, was a large overbearing man and I was sometimes
afraid that he might hurt me..."
Freud: "Were you afraid that your husband might be suspicious?"
Sophie A: "Herr professor, I believe sometimes that my husband actually
acquiesced to it. There were many times when he encouraged Herr B to take me
out for 'excursions' in the country."
Freud: "And the other gentleman?"
Sophie A: "Oh, but he was really a boy, only just out of Gymnasium, so
I suppose 16 or 17 We went on several 'outings' together and my husband never
suspected. [Fliess notes that the normally imperturbable Freud looked surprised.]
He was a lovely, reckless boy and everything happened very fast. We were always
embracing, he liked always to touch me, indeed even in a public place. With
him I felt always so elated." [Here Fliess notes one of those parapraxes illustrated
most extensively in Freud's 'Psychopathology of Everyday Life', 1901. In this
speech the patient unconsciously substituted the word 'inflated' for 'elated'
-- the most simple explanation of this verbal slip being the fear of pregnancy.]
From a letter of 1928 from Freud to Fliess: "...and so my dear Wilhelm, you will understand that my treatment of Sophie von A. was not crowned with success. Her stress and anxiety intensified latterly, and the physical manifestations became more pronounced. When I last saw her I noted a sad alteration in her appearance; she was verschossen -- faded, 'rusty'. Also more timid I believe; when, at the appointed hour, she had not appeared, the maid found her in the Berggasse, leaning against a wall, unable to summon up the energy, or the courage, to enter. Her movements seemed very stiff; she complained of aches and pains, and actually asked for a hot-water bottle [2] to ease the stiffness of the 'lower back'. My friend, I could do nothing for her.
However, I have learnt recently that she has since left her husband, the parting apparently without acrimony (though I hear that a sum of money may have exchanged hand!) and is associating with a more 'appreciative' young man, a mechanic. She appears to have completely recovered. I have just received a letter from her from which I quote: 'I feel myself now to be free-running, unconstrained, my problems now completely removed. You will be pleased to hear, Herr Professor, that I rarely fall these days. My Hans sees to that...' The letter concludes with a humorous reference to the present suppleness of her 'lower back'."
NOTES
1. Sophie von A. also provoked the ire of the housemaid who complained to Martha,
Freud's wife, that her muddy boots had soiled the Turkish rug which covered
the celebrated couch.
2. In 1928, Freud was a refugee in London, living in Hampstead, and it was there that he met the Spanish surrealist artist, Salvador Dali. In his autobiography, Dali recalled, "While I was crossing the old professor's yard, I saw a bicycle leaning against the wall, and on the saddle, attached my a string, was a red hot-water bottle which looked full of water and on the back of it walked a snail!" Perceptive readers will have spotted that Freud had all along been applying his method of analysis to his own bicycle, a loop-frame Adler which he sold in 1910. Probably all it required was a bit of lubing and some Proofide. We hope Mrs Freud fared better.
© David Eccles
Cycling Plus, July 1993