The story of Freud's patient Anna von Lieben - as told by Anna von Lieben

Abstract

Anna von Lieben (Cäcilie M.) was treated for some 5 years by Sigmund Freud who discussed her case in Studies on Hysteria. This article presents an alternative view of the case based on the discovery of new primary material, principally, a handwritten corpus of confessional poetry by Anna herself. The poems were studied using a qualitative research methodology, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), the findings of which were then further explored through the lens of her husband's unpublished diary entries. On this basis, it is suggested that Anna's ill-health appears to have been due mainly to chronic gynaecological disease, morphinism, troubles of iatrogenic origin and possibly phenomena similar to what are now termed psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNESs). Overall, the findings contradict Freud's account of satisfactory therapeutic progress culminating in a cure.

Keywords: Anna von Lieben; endometriosis; hysteria; interpretative phenomenological analysis; narrative medicine; retrospective diagnosis.