Steven Marcus
FREUD AND DORA:
Story, History, Case History
I.
It is generally agreed that Freud's case histories are
unique. Today more than half a century after they were written
they are still widely read. Even more, they are still widely used for
instruction and training in psychoanalytic institutes. One of the
inferences that such a vigorous condition of survival prompts is
that these writings have not yet been superseded. Like other
masterpieces of literature or the arts, these works seem to possess
certain transhistorical qualities -- although it may by no means
be easy to specify what those qualities are. The implacable "march
of science" has not -- or has not yet - - consigned them to
"mere" history. Their singular and mysterious complexity, den–
sity, and richness have thus far prevented such a trans formation
and demotion.
This state of affairs has received less attention th an it merits.
Freud's case histories -- and his works in general -- are unique
as pieces or kinds of writing, and it may be useful to examine one
of Freud's case histories from the point of view of literary criti–
cism, to analyze it as a piece of writing, and to determine whether
this method of proceeding may yield results that other means have
not. My assumption -- and conclusion -- is that Freud is a great
writer and that one of his major case histories is a great work of
literature -- that is to say it is both an outstanding creative and
imaginative performance and an intellectual and cognitive achieve–
ment of the highest order. And yet this triumphant greatness is in
part connected with the circumstance that it is about a kind of
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a shortened version of a piece that
will
soon appear full-length
in
a collection of essays by Steven Marcus.
