Josef Breuer: biography of this pioneer of psychoanalysis

This physician, famous for creating the cathartic method and treating Anna O., left his mark on Sigmund Freud.

The physician and physiologist Josef Breuer is best known for his first use of the cathartic method in the famous case of Anna O., which inspired his disciple Sigmund Freud to create psychoanalysis. However, Breuer's conceptions differed from Freud's in central aspects.

Breuer is a relevant figure in the history of neurophysiology and psychoanalysis. In this article we will review his biography, his contributions to these two fields and his relationship with Freud. Anna O.'s prominent role in the field of hysteria..

Biography of Josef Breuer

Josef Breuer (1842-1925) studied medicine at the University of Vienna and during his early years of professional practice worked as an assistant to Johann von Oppolzer and later to Karl Hering, a physiologist known for his studies on visual perception and eye movements.

Breuer made important contributions in the field of neurophysiology.. During his collaboration with Hering, he described the role of the vagus nerve in the Respiratory response; this would give rise to the concept of the "Hering-Breuer reflex", which is still valid today.

He was also one of the first to propose that balance depends on the movement of fluid in the semicircular canals of the inner ear and the information that the brain receives in relation to these displacements.

For much of his life Breuer worked as a family physician and as a personal physician to many intellectuals living in Vienna, among them the philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano. He was also a professor of physiology at the University of Vienna, where he taught Sigmund Freud, who Sigmund Freud, with whom he later collaborated..

The case of Anna O.

In 1880 Breuer began treating Bertha von Pappenheim, a hysteria patient who played a fundamental role in the emergence of psychoanalysis. She would go down in history as "Anna O." since this was the pseudonym given to her by Breuer and Freud in their joint work Studies on Hysteriathe cornerstone of early psychoanalysis.

According to Breuer, Pappenheim had two personalities that became increasingly distinct as treatment progressed. While the former was sad and apprehensive, the latter was more childlike and explosive. This case is one of the earliest recorded examples of dissociative identity disorder (or "multiple personality").

Breuer noted that Pappenheim's symptoms, which consisted mainly of paralysis, muteness, and partial blindness, temporarily subsided when he talked about them under hypnosis. when he talked about them under hypnosis and attributed a cause to them.. The patient was also relieved when she talked about her dreams or hallucinations, and it was her own preferences that guided Breuer.

Pappenheim called this type of intervention "speech cure" or "chimney-cleaning"; thus the cathartic method was born.Thus the cathartic method was born, consisting of hypnotizing the patient to recall the traumatic event that triggered the symptom (or to invent such a memory) and thus eliminate the associated negative emotions, and consequently the symptom.

Freud and the "Studies on Hysteria".

The case of Anna O. inspired Sigmund Freud to write the book Studies on Hysteria in collaboration with his teacher Breuer. This work, which appeared in 1895, describes the treatment of Bertha von Pappenheim and four other women by means of hypnosis and the cathartic method.

On a theoretical level, Freud and Breuer defended two different hypotheses in the book: while Freud believed that hysteria was always due to traumatic memories related to sexuality, according to Breuer there could also be neurophysiological causes.

Contrary to what is told in "Studies on Hysteria", Anna O. did not recover completely through Breuer's treatment, but ended up being hospitalized. Eventually, however, her symptoms eased and she became a leading personality in German feminism at the time, as well as a staunch opponent of psychoanalysis.

The relationship between Breuer and Freud deteriorated rapidly. Freud not only displayed a confidence in the cathartic method that Breuer considered unwarranted, but he mythologized the case of Anna O. to promote what would become psychoanalysis. Towards the end of his life Breuer saw Freud on the street and made a gesture of greeting him, but his disciple ignored him.

Breuer's legacy

The "speech cure" that Breuer developed with the invaluable collaboration of Bertha von Pappenheim would become the seed of Freud's psychoanalysis and, consequently, of mainstream psychotherapy in the following century.

Breuer's hypotheses regarding the case of Anna O. triggered interest in unconscious processes, especially in the etiology of hysteria and other neuroses. the etiology of hysteria and other neuroses.. However, Breuer distanced himself from Freud because he disagreed with his emphasis on psychosexual trauma as the sole cause of these disorders.

Breuer believed that hypnosis and the cathartic method could facilitate the creation of false memories. could facilitate the creation of false memorieseven if these were felt by the patients to be true. Many later critics of Freud would agree with Breuer and his more cautious approach.