Did you know that…..
In 1893 Breuer and Sigmund Freud published their experiences in the treatment of Hysteria in a communication entitled “The Psychic Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena“, and later in 1895 “Studies of Hysteria” ?
The principal contributions were :
- They, instead of hypnotizing a patient and then making direct suggestions of cure, encouraged the patient to talk while under hypnosis. The patient recalled and expressed important events connected with his emotional live. This method is called by them “mental catharsis“. This talking out under hypnosis was laden with emotional charge. The discharge of the repressed emotion into verbal emotive expression was called “abreaction“.
- They, studying Hysteria, established the relationship between neurotic symptoms and childhood experiences.
- They discovered that symptoms have “meaning“.
- They claim that “communication” is the therapeutic operative force.
(Edited by Dr. María Moya Guirao, MD)
