Cäcilie M.

Born into a rich Austrian Jewish family, Anna von Lieben was referred to Freud in the late eighties for help with a long-standing series of nervous disorders. After referring her for a consultation with Charcot, Freud treated her (with some short-term success) through hypnotism, taking her with him to see Hippolyte Bernheim in 1889 in the (unsuccessful) hope that he might be able to work a permanent cure.^[2] He also used abreaction for temporary relief of her symptoms,^[3] noting, however, that her sense of guilt and self-reproaches would swiftly return after the treatment sessions.^[4]

Her symptoms, including hallucinations and physical spasms, provided the basis for many of Freud's claims about conversion hysteria; and how to interpret back from physical symptom or hallucination to the underlying (symbolic) emotional meaning it expressed,^[5] often by a "punning" logic.^[6]

Freud's later critics have argued that his continuing treatment of Anna, given awareness of her incurability, amounted to using her as a kind of cash-cow.^[7]

Freud continued during the six years of psychoanalysis to treat her continuously with injections of morphine without any success or therapeutic result.^[8]