18
STEVEN MARCUS
pretation. A few weeks after the first dream, the second dream
occurred. Freud spent two hours elucidating it, and at the begin–
ning of the third, which took place on December 31, 1900, Dora
informed him that she was there for the last time. Freud pressed
on during this hour and presented Dora with a series of stunning
and outrageously intelligent interpretations. The analysis ended as
follows: "Dora had listened
t~
me without any 'Of her usual
contradictions. She seemed to be moved; she said good-bye to me
very warmly, with the heartiest wishes for the New Year, and
came no more." Dora's father subsequently called on Freud two
or three times to reassure him that Dora was returning, but Freud
knew better than to take him at his word. Fifteen months later, in
April 1902, Dora returned for a single visit; what she had to tell
Freud on that occasion was of some interest, but he knew that she
was done with him, as indeed she was.
Dora was actuated by many impulses in breaking off the
treatment; prominent among these partial motives was revenge - –
upon men in general and at that moment Freud in particular, who
was standing for those other men in her life who had betrayed and
injured her. He writes rather ruefully of Dora's "breaking off so
unexpectedly, just when my hopes of a successful termination of
the treatment were at their highest, and her thus bringing those
hopes to nothing -- this was an unmistakable act of vengeance on
her part." And although Dora's "purpose of self-injury" was also
served by this action, Freud goes on clearly to imply that he felt
hurt and wounded by her behavior. Yet it could not have been so
unexpected as all that, since as early as the first dream, Freud both
understood and had communicated this understanding to Dora
that she had already decided to give up the treatment. What is
suggested by this logical hiatus is that although Dora had done
with Freud, Freud had not done with Dora. And this supposition
is supported by what immediately followed. As soon as Dora left
him, Freud began writing up her case history - - a proceeding
that, as far as I have been able to ascertain, was not in point of
immediacy a usual response for him. He interrupted the composi–
tion of the
Psychopathology of Everyday Life
on which he was
then engaged and wrote what is substantially the case of Dora
during the first three weeks of January 190
l.
On January 25, he
