Sigmund Freud represents an extremely rare breed of literary genius. His ability to delve into the human subconscious and extrapolate meaning from the seemingly absurd gives his works an exploratory, constantly distorted feel that finds its own place in literary history. In particular, "Dora: Analysis of a Case of Hysteria" embodies the Freudian writing style as a unique combination of literature and science, as it converges the two subjects into a harmonious blend that lends both a rich narrative of rhetorical devices alongside a psychoanalysis and justification of Dora's hysterical symptoms. The next way in which Freud creates a unique and memorable work lies in his ability to construct a complex and massive connection that remains constant throughout the analysis, which also operates on a panoramic and explicit view. At the same time, from a more holistic perspective, we see many twists and turns and revelations throughout the work; Nothing more than the realization of an intimate relationship between Freud and Dora, which Freud fails to see, and which ultimately becomes the main payoff of Dora's story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay What makes Analysis a unique text is the combination of "scientific" postulates and Freud's gripping narrative. The first method is cited in quotation marks because psychoanalysis is not an exact science, but in reality "an art, which would otherwise be useless, used to discover the hidden and repressed parts of mental life." From a general perspective, the analysis is structured in such a way that Freud will first engage the reader through a descriptive account of Dora's situation, drawing them in through the use of eloquent syntax. Psychoanalysis then follows, where he employs extended metaphors and specific analogies to communicate his more technical points to his audience, and in this sense, language serves as our gateway to explanation, just as it does in the world of dreams. An example of such metaphorical dialogue is when he recounts Dora's unconscious thoughts wrapping around a structure of organic connections like "garlands of flowers wrapped around a thread." Or, speaking of somatic complacency, he compares the early development of a psychological symptom such as a real organic irritation of the throat to “a grain of sand around which an oyster forms its pearl”. These analogies engage and submerge the reader in the text and create harmony between scientific empiricism and rhetorical technique. Freud also has a mastery of language and uses it to further validate his arguments with his keen eye for detecting puns and double meanings in diction. of dreams. Like in Dora's first dream, where he remarks that because there is a "fire", Dora must suppress intense emotions by using his antonym. Here, "fire" is actually an opposite front for "wet", which he then uses as a junction to suggest that Dora is a.) saved by her father for wetting the bed, and b.) protecting her genitals from to be moistened or sexually aroused using the antipode of “wet”. This is just one example in which Freud uses his vast knowledge of diction to create connections through free association, a technique for which he is well known. Additionally, Freud's circumvention of conventional 19th century societal norms is another reason why Dora is considered a memorable work. Barely thirty years earlier, Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola had aroused public outrage over the contentexplicit sexual content of the novel. Freud, however, sees it as an essential and necessary element in deducing the causes of Dora's symptoms, and therefore chooses to explore the sexual themes in more depth as they relate to Dora's psychological problems. Although Freud addresses realistic and intimate topics so publicly, he provides brief asides as to why he does so, justifying debate on such topics by referring to "uncertainty about the limits of what should be called "normal sexual life, when we take into account different races and different times, should in itself be enough to calm the ardor of the fanatic", and also the necessity of raising such subjects in this case of hysteria. Such convincing rhetoric is entirely typical of Freud and a key example of how he wields language eloquently. This also demonstrates his persuasive tone, which illustrates his use of diction to his advantage. Perhaps the most significant and distinctive feature of the Analysis is the way in which Freud manages to piece together a complex web of ideas that is continually added to and adapted throughout the novel. This nexus of theories and hypotheses about Dora's symptoms ultimately results in a massive combination of intertwined inferences that provide us with a picture of the inner workings of Dora's mind. Because Freud views Dora's symptoms as having true somatic roots, but being hyperbolized by a variable psychic element, he searches for the most twisted and troubled parts hidden in Dora's subconscious. This is probably Freud's greatest talent, his mastery of connections that allows him to see deeply through Dora's surface and into her clandestine thoughts. Another remarkable thing about Freud is that he leaves nothing untouched or unexamined, from dreams to subtle movements to diction, he takes in everything about a patient and somehow orders the actions in a super image. We see this happen when Dora is in session with him, and at the simple subconscious touch of a crosshair, Freud sees "betrayal seeping out of her from every pore", and associates this subtle act with a slight release of subconscious emotions . desire for sexual pleasure, a desire that she is even unaware of. From Dora's dyspnea, or respiratory problems, Freud weaves an explanation by bringing together several different pieces of information. He believes that because Dora was close to her father's room, she often heard him struggling to breathe. This is then associated with "loose fragments of the act of copulation", and Dora's subconscious absorbs something sexual in the cough. So, he declares, his troubled breathing is his subconscious sexual fantasy. Another example of Freud's talent for noticing minute connections between seemingly unrelated incidents is his indication that when Herr K. kissed her, she secretly desired him. He comes to this conclusion by first connecting his disgust with the kiss to the governess's warning that not all men are trustworthy. This then leads him to find a similarity between his father and the general perspective of men described by the governess. Then we see that because her father was impotent and suffering from venereal disease, all men must have been untrustworthy and willing to pass on venereal diseases. So, despite her unconscious love for him, the slightest emotional impulse tipped the scales in the other direction, inspiring disgust instead of acceptance. However, he also guesses the reason for his aphonia, or inability to speak, due to Dora's belief that there is no need to communicate when Herr K is gone. These deductions about the real causesDora's psychological symptoms for her symptoms perfectly characterize Freud's method of linking, and thus we see two polar opposite emotions clashing inside Dora, all linked to the primary emotions surrounding her father and Herr K. Freud manages to establish the linking several seemingly irrelevant or unrelated points to a master network by two main methods, which are empiricism and the belief in the narrow boundary of opposites. The first plans to investigate Dora's past and find the clues that link her current symptoms to her troubled childhood. The latter, however, is the more specifically Freudian approach. Here, Freud draws on the ideal that, when dealing with a hysterical patient, the use of opposites plays an essential role in the analysis. Because Dora's mind is "dominated by the opposition between reality and fantasy", it becomes even more difficult and complicated to break down her emotional barriers and see what the true emotions are behind them. The holistic view of Dora's dream is an example of how Freud deals with opposites. In fact, Dora thinks she "can't sleep peacefully until I get out of this house." However, in the dream world, his subconscious expresses this through an abstract reversal. In her dream, she says, "as soon as I was outside, I woke up." Despite this, although it appears that Dora is insulted by Herr K's advance on her and must leave their home immediately, her dream suggests that her subconscious true love for him had to be "repressed so energetically » that, once again, the opposite of what she actually wants happens in her dream. As previously explained through the bonding process, due to Dora's experience with the mixed connotations of her father's coughing fits in bed and her generalized projection of her father's impotence onto all men, a line so fine exists between his ideals of sexual desire and morbid anxiety. This is another factor why she suppresses her love for Herr K more, instead of indulging in it, as stimulation of the oral and erogenous zone seems to bring feelings of nausea and shortness of breath to life. To the average observer, such behavior would seem erratic, given that we have seen somatic symptoms emerge in Dora due to her love for Herr K, but to Freud, all that needs to be done is to split the jumble opposites and linking together the different facts to reconstruct an image of Dora's internal workings. This "juxtaposition of the most dissimilar tendencies" is the source of Dora's hysterical problems, because with such a fine line separating such contrary ideals, "it is never possible to calculate In such a conflict of motivations, on which side will lean the decision: either towards the suppression of repression, or towards its reinforcement. This oxymoronic motif of mutual dependence of contrary ideas is present throughout the analysis as a continuous nuance, which reveals to us piece by piece Dora's tumultuous but fiery emotions of love, hatred, anxiety and jealousy . So we see how they fit together in his mind, each with its own repression, displacement, or exaggeration, and each with its own complex justification as to why. Thus, Freud gives orderly meaning to what appears to be irrational hysteria, through his bonding technique and his ability to recognize when a true emotion is masked using its opposite, both typically Freudian skills, and makes this story of case an ordered sense. interesting. Furthermore, for all of Freud's intellectual prowess, he seems to realize that Dora only transferred his feelings of adoration and rage..