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Bertha Pappenheim

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Bertha Pappenheim is perhaps most famous for Josef Breuer’s study of (and writing about) her, but his treatment lasted only a couple of years—she herself spent nearly thirteen years, between 1882 and 1895, actively attempting to reconstruct herself. The aim of this reconstruction was to grow not only from her illness but also from her previous life as a bourgeois homemaker, from the healthy aspects of her grief for her father, and (perhaps most notably) from her immense emotional reliance on Breuer himself. In fact, far more effectively than when working with Breuer, Pappenheim’s own agency and motivation helped her to move successfully from her previous private fantasies into a new context of major political and social change. It is possible to examine Pappenheim’s later life in terms of her illness and subsequent treatment—and indeed, her experience with illness and her relationship …show more content…

Although his diagnoses are somewhat suspect, Breuer gave her validation, worldly experience, and ultimately the place from which she began her self-reconstruction. She did most of the reconstruction on her own—choosing to end her relationship with Breuer, withdrawing from the narcotics to which she became addicted, writing and publishing her work, moving away from Vienna to Frankfurt, and eventually taking a job. However, though Breuer’s treatment itself may not have had as large an influence on her later life as might be expected, the timing of her illness impacted quite a lot. The major peculiarities that Pappenheim experienced were to do with her living situation—she was precluded from marrying, for example, and lived with her mother. Additionally, her tendency to tell stories to Breuer may have a connection to her later successes as a

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