Anna O. was the name given to a patient of the physician and physiologist Josef Breuer in his book "Studies on Hysteria", written in collaboration with Sigmund Freud. Her actual name was Bertha Pappenheim. Her sister, Marie Pappenheim, as a medical student, wrote the libretto, depicting a woman's mental breakdown, for Arnold Schoenberg's Erwartung. Josef Breuer (January 15, 1842- June 20, 1925) was an Austrian psychologist whose works symbolised the foundation of psychoanalysis. ... Studies on Hysteria (German: Studien über Hysterie) was a book published in 1895 by Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer. ... Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; ) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, based on his theory that unconscious motives determine much behavior, that particular kinds of unconscious thoughts and memories, especially sexual and aggressive ones, are the source of... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1948 For the American music critic and journalist, see Harold Charles Schonberg. ...

She suffered from hysterical paralysis, where one of her arms was paralyzed even though there was nothing medically or physically wrong with it. After study, it was discovered this was the arm she had cradled her dying father with. It was theorised that she was unconsciously stopping the use of the arm as punishment because she blamed herself for her father's death.

Through analysis with Breuer, it was discovered that by talking about what had happened when the symptoms started, she would recover a repressed fact and then recover a bit. This is what Pappenheim called her "talking cure". Breuer called the act of recovery through this method catharsis. This case was the beginning of psychoanalysis, which would be later heavily developed by Freud. rwre Catharsis is a sudden emotional breakdown or climax that constitutes overwhelming feelings of great pity, sorrow, laughter, or any extreme change in emotion that results in the renewal, restoration and revitalization for living. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods within the field of psychotherapy that seeks to elucidate connections among unconscious components of patients mental processes, and to do so in a systematic way through a process of tracing out associations. ...

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