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Emma Eckstein (1865–1924) was an Austrian author. She was "one of
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
's most important patients and, for a short period of time around 1897, became a
psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...
herself". She has been described as "the first woman analyst", who became "both colleague and patient" for Freud. As analyst, while "working mainly in the area of sexual and social hygiene, she also explored how 'daydreams, those "parasitic plants", invaded the life of young girls'." Ernest Jones placed her with such figures as Lou Andreas-Salomé and
Joan Riviere Joan Hodgson Riviere (28 June 1883 – 20 May 1962) was a British psychoanalyst, who was both an early translator of Freud into English and an influential writer on her own account. Life and career Riviere was born Joan Hodgson Verrall in Bri ...
as a "type of woman, of a more intellectual and perhaps masculine cast... hoplayed a part in his life, accessory to his male friends though of a finer calibre."


Life

"Emma Eckstein was born in Vienna on 28 January 1865 to a well-known bourgeois family" with close connections to Freud: "one of her brothers was Gustav Eckstein (1875–1916), a
social democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...
and associate of
Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theorist. Kautsky was one of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels ...
, the leader of the
Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...
; and a sister, Therese Schlesinger, a socialist, was one of the first women members of parliament." Another brother, Friedrich, appears (anonymously) in Freud's '' Civilization and its Discontents'' as a 'friend of mine, whose insatiable craving for knowledge has led him to make the most unusual experiments', including 'the practices of
Yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...
...He sees in them a physiological basis, as it were, for much of the wisdom of mysticism'. Emma herself was active in the Viennese women's movement, "collaborating with ''Dokumente der Frauen'' and ''
Neues Frauenleben ''Neues Frauenleben'' (German: ''New Women's Life'') was a socialist feminist magazine which was published in Vienna, Austria, in the period 1902–1917. It was the official organ of the General Austrian Women’s Organization. History and pro ...
''." After an operation in 1910, however, "Emma took to her couch, and remained a partial invalid until she died on 30 July 1924 of a cerebral hemorrhage."


Analysis

When she was 27, she went to Freud, seeking treatment for vague symptoms including
stomach The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and many other animals, including several invertebrates. The stomach has a dilated structure and functions as a vital organ in the digestive system. The stomach i ...
ailments and slight depression related to
menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of ...
. Freud diagnosed Eckstein as suffering from
hysteria Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...
and believed that she
masturbated Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combination ...
to excess; masturbation in those days was considered dangerous to
mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles Stress (biology), stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-maki ...
. Her 'treatment lasted something in the region of three years – one of the most protracted and detailed of Freud's early cases'. In her analysis, Emma Eckstein "supplied Freud with the material that would allow him to theorize hysteric symptomology...taught Freud about 'the no-man's land between fantasy and memory, resonating with sadistic acts and fantasies of a former historical epoch'." Her "eager collaboration in her analysis gave Freud much precious material...contributed substantial changes and fundamental new elements to his theories: the wish theory of psychosis and dream; the transferential reconstruction of her early pleasures...fantastic scenes from her inner life." In particular, Freud's theory of
deferred action In United States administrative law, deferred action is an immigration status which the executive branch can grant to illegal immigrants. This does not give them legal status, but can indefinitely delay their deportation. Deferred action is an exer ...
owed much to "Emma Eckstein's twinned scenes in shops...'Now this case is typical of repression in hysteria. We invariably find that a memory has been repressed which has only become a trauma through ''deferred action."


Surgery

Freud was at the time under the influence of his friend and collaborator
Wilhelm Fliess Wilhelm Fliess (german: Wilhelm Fließ; 24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928) was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. He developed the pseudoscientific theory of human biorhythms and a possible nasogenital connection that have ...
, an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Fliess, whom Freud had called "the
Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws o ...
of biology", had developed theories today considered
pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
, including the belief that sexual problems were linked to the nose by a supposed nasogenital connection. Fliess had been treating "nasal reflex neurosis" by
cauterizing Cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove an undesired growth, or ...
the inside of the nose under
local anesthesia Local anesthesia is any technique to induce the absence of sensation in a specific part of the body, generally for the aim of inducing local analgesia, that is, local insensitivity to pain, although other local senses may be affected as well. It ...
. Fliess conjectured that if temporary cauterization was useful, surgery would yield more permanent results. He began operating on the noses of patients he diagnosed with the disorder, including Eckstein and Freud. His surgery proved disastrous, resulting in profuse, recurrent nasal bleeding; Fliess had left a half-metre of gauze in Eckstein's nasal cavity, the subsequent removal of which left her permanently disfigured. Though aware of Fliess's culpability, Freud fled from the remedial surgery in horror, he could only bring himself to delicately intimate in his correspondence to Fliess the nature of his disastrous role and in subsequent letters maintained a tactful silence on the matter or else returned to the face-saving topic of Eckstein's hysteria. Freud ultimately reasserted his full confidence in Fliess's competence, making Eckstein responsible for the catastrophe by concluding that her post-operative haemorrhages were "wish-bleedings", caused by her hysterical longing for the affection of others. Guilt over the episode has been identified as contributing to the dream of
Irma's injection "Irma's injection" is the name given to the dream that Sigmund Freud dreamt on the night of July 23, 1895, and that he subsequently analyzed to arrive at his theory that dreams are wish fulfillments. He described his ideas on dream theory and provi ...
in ''
The Interpretation of Dreams ''The Interpretation of Dreams'' (german: Die Traumdeutung) is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses wha ...
'': "
Max Schur Max Schur (26 September 1897 – 12 October 1969) was a physician and friend of Sigmund Freud. He assisted Freud in euthanasia. Ernest Jones considered that "Schur was a perfect choice for a doctor... his considerateness, his untiring patience, a ...
grasped right away the significance of the episode to the 'Irma' dream...in his paper on the specimen dream."


Seduction theory

Eckstein is also associated with Freud's seduction theory. In 1897, Freud cites her analytic findings to Fliess as support for his "so-called seduction theory, the claim that all neuroses are the consequences of an adult's, usually a father's, sexual abuse of a child". Freud wrote that "Eckstein deliberately treated her patient in such a manner as not to give her the slightest hint of what would emerge from the unconscious and in the process obtained from her...the identical scenes with the father".
Jeffrey Masson Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (born March 28, 1941 as Jeffrey Lloyd Masson) is an American author. Masson is best known for his conclusions about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. In his ''The Assault on Truth'' (1984), Masson argues that Freud may ha ...
in his assault on Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory makes much of Eckstein's role, linking Freud's "abandonment" of her position with respect to the Fliess surgery to his "abandonment" of her evidence for the paternal etiology of neurosis: for "the idea – which even Masson concedes is crazy – that...all neurotic patients had been sexually abused". Yet while few (since Schur) would dissent that in regard to the failed surgery "Freud's evasiveness is blatant....Freud was eager to protect Fliess from the obvious charge of careless, almost fatal malpractice", there is at the same time much to suggest that "as far as the seduction theory is concerned, Eckstein is a red herring...no more relevant than Freud's other patients. The fact that Masson lavishes so much attention on her...
s because S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...
Emma Eckstein is for him a woman whom Freud and Fliess abused. She is thus the prototypical psychoanalytic victim...this symbolic function".


Cultural influences

* In 1904, "Eckstein had published a small book on the sexual education of children", although in it "she does not mention Freud". A few years later, however, in his open letter on "The Sexual Enlightenment of Children", Freud refers to her book approvingly, highlighting "the charming letter of explanation which a certain Frau Emma Eckstein quotes as having been written by her to her son when he was about ten years old".Sigmund Freud, ''On Sexuality'' (PFL 7) p. 179 * Eckstein appears as a character in
Joseph Skibell Joseph Skibell (born October 18, 1959) is a novelist and essayist living in Atlanta, Georgia and Tesuque, New Mexico. Skibell is the author of three novels, which use elements of history and fantasy, a collection of true stories, and a forthc ...
's 2010 novel '' A Curable Romantic''. * The song "Emma Eckstein's Nose Job" was released as a single in 2010 by Danish musician Anders Thode.


Bibliography

* * * Eckstein, E., ''Die Sexualfrage in der Erziehung des Kindes'' (Leipzig 1904) * *


References


Further reading

* Chapter 3: "Freud, Fliess, and Emma Eckstein," pp. 55–106. And "Appendix A. Freud and Emma Eckstein" pp. 233–250. ''In'' Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff (1984) ''The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory'' Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York,


External links


K. R. Eissler, "Preliminary Remarks on Emma Eckstein's Case History"
* ttp://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2006/1652467.htm Transcriptof
Jeffrey Masson Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (born March 28, 1941 as Jeffrey Lloyd Masson) is an American author. Masson is best known for his conclusions about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. In his ''The Assault on Truth'' (1984), Masson argues that Freud may ha ...
, editor of ''The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887–1904'', telling Robyn Williams the story of Emma Eckstein's surgery on
ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...
(second broadcast 3 June 2006) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eckstein, Emma 1865 births 1924 deaths Case studies by Sigmund Freud Analysands of Sigmund Freud Writers from Vienna Austrian Jews Austro-Hungarian Jews