Carl Pietsch
FREUD'S CASE STUDIES
Reading through Sigmund Freud's case studies in chrono–
logical order is instructive experience for anyone interested in the
intellectual history of psychoanalysis. One sees how Freud's
technique evolved from the attempts to dispel particular symptoms
that we observe in
Studies on Hysteria
(1895) to the method of free
association that he describes in his report on the case of Dora (1905) .
We see also how Freud's conception of the transference developed,
from a primitive notion of transference as something to be avoided
or dispelled to the mature conception of transference as the
invaluable center of analysis . But most importantly, Freud's case
studies show how he came, over time, to regard them as important
vehicles of psychoanalytic knowledge.
Examination of Freud's case studies leads inexorably to
questions of psychoanalytic knowledge - its locus, character, and
epistemological status. For we must consider the cases as they relate
to Freud's other writings . We must wonder whether Freud wrote his
case studies for a specific readership, or whether the cases com–
municate to their readers in a unique fashion. These questions will
lead us to delineate an important fissure in Freud's thinking and to
speculate on the nature of Freud's most peculiarly psychoanalytic
knowledge.
Two notions taken from the discourse of philosophy of science
will
assist us in our examination of Freud's case studies: "exemplars"
and "personal knowledge." These notions operate here for the
heuristic purpose of illuminating the place of case studies in the
discourse of psychoanalysis and for speculating on the nature of
psychoanalytic knowledge.
My understanding of the way in which Freud's (and later
psychoanalysts') case studies constitute exemplars in psychoanalysis
diverges in one important respect from the meaning of the term
given by Thomas Kuhn, who in his later essays used "exemplars" to
mean "shared examples of successful practice," which students of
these disciplines learn, and which then serve to maintain the
coherence of their research community. For psychoanalytic case
