Sigmund Freud represents an extremely rare breed of literary genius. His ability to delve into the human subconscious and extrapolate meaning from the seemingly nonsensical gives his works an exploratory and constantly twisting atmosphere that finds its place in the history of literature. In particular, "Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria" embodies the Freudian writing style as a unique combination of literature and science, as it brings the two topics together in a harmonious blend that gives both a narrative full of rhetorical devices together to a psychoanalysis and justification of Dora's hysterical symptoms. The next way Freud creates a unique and memorable work is through his ability to build a huge and intricate connection that remains constant throughout the analysis, which also operates on a panoramic and explicit vision. Beyond that, from a more holistic perspective, we see numerous twists and revelations throughout the play; nothing more than the realization of an intimate relationship between Freud and Dora, which Freud fails to see, and which ultimately becomes the main gain from the story of Dora's case. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay What makes the Analysis a unique text is the combination of Freud's "scientific" postulates and a compelling narrative. The first method is mentioned in quotation marks because psychoanalysis is not an exact science, but rather "an art, otherwise useless, aimed at explaining the discovery of the hidden and repressed parts of psychic life". From a general perspective, the Analysis is structured in such a way that Freud will first engage the reader through a descriptive narrative of Dora's situation, engaging him through the use of eloquent syntax. A psychoanalytic analysis will then follow, in which he uses extended metaphors and specific analogies to communicate his more technical points to his audience and, in this sense, language serves as a gateway to explanation for us, just as in the world of dreams . An example of such metaphorical dialogue is when he relates Dora's unconscious thoughts that are woven around a structure of organic connections with “festoons of flowers twined around a thread.” Or, when he talks about somatic compliance, he compares the first development of a psychic symptom as a real organic irritation of the throat to "a grain of sand around which an oyster forms its pearl". These analogies engage and immerse the reader in the text and create a harmony between scientific empiricism and rhetorical technique. Another way Freud masters language and uses it to further validate his points is through his keen eye for detecting wordplay and double entendres in diction. of dreams. Like in Dora's first dream, where she notes that because there is a "fire", Dora must suppress intense emotions using its opposite. Here, "fire" is actually the opposite side of "wet", which he then uses as a splice to suggest that Dora is a.) being saved by her father for wetting the bed, and b.) protecting her genitals from being moistened or sexually aroused employing the antipodes of "wet". This is just one example where Freud uses his extensive knowledge of diction to make connections through free association, a technique for which he is well known. Furthermore, the fact that Freud eludes the conventional social norms of the 19th century is another reason why Dora is seen as a memorable work. Just 30 years earlier, Emile Zola's Therese Raquin was met with public outrage over the novel's explicit sexual content. Freud, however, sees it as an essential and necessary component for deducing informationcauses of Dora's symptoms, and therefore chooses to delve into sexual issues insofar as they relate to Dora's psychological problems. Although Freud publicly discusses such intimate realist topics, he provides brief digressions because he does so, justifying the discussion of such topics by reference to “the uncertainty regarding the boundaries of what is to be called normal sexual life, when we take into account the different races and the different ages, should in itself be enough to cool the ardor of the fanatic,” and also the necessity of referring to such matters in this case of hysteria. Such convincing rhetoric is exactly typical of Freud and a key example of his eloquent use of language. This also demonstrates his persuasive tone, which exemplifies the use of diction to his advantage. Perhaps the most significant and distinctive feature of the Analysis is the way in which Freud manages to piece together an intricate web of ideas that is continually added to and adapted throughout the novel. This linking of theories and hypotheses about Dora's symptoms ultimately culminates in a massive intertwined combination of inferences that give us insight into the inner workings of Dora's mind. Since Freud sees Dora's symptoms as having real somatic roots, but hyperbolized by a variable psychic element, he searches for the twisted and more problematic parts hidden in Dora's subconscious. This is probably Freud's greatest talent, his mastery of connections that allows him to see deeply through Dora's surface and into her clandestine thoughts. Another remarkable thing about Freud is that he leaves nothing untouched or unexamined, from dreams to subtle movements to diction, he takes in everything about a patient and somehow orders the actions into a super picture. We see this come into effect when Dora is in session with him, and at the simple subconscious touch of a grating, Freud sees "betrayal oozes from (her) every pore", and links this subtle act to a slight release of the subconscious. desire for sexual pleasure, a desire that not even she is aware of. From Dora's dyspnea, or breathing disorders, Freud weaves an explanation by bringing together several different pieces of information. It is estimated that Dora, being near her father's room, often heard him breathing heavily. This is then associated with “staccato fragments of the act of copulation,” and Dora's subconscious picks up something sexual from the cough. So, he claims, his panting is his subconscious fantasy of sex. Another example of Freud's talent for noticing minute connections between seemingly unrelated incidents is her indication that when Herr K. kissed her, she secretly desired it. He comes to this conclusion by first connecting his disgust at the kiss to the housekeeper's warning that all men are untrustworthy. This then makes her find a similarity between her father and the general perspective of men described by the governess. So we see that since her father was impotent and suffered from a venereal disease, all men must have been unreliable and ready to pass venereal diseases. So, despite her subconscious love for him, the slightest emotional impulse tipped the scales in the opposite direction, inspiring disgust instead of acceptance. However, he also guesses the reason for his aphonia, or inability to speak, due to Dora's belief that there is no need to communicate when Herr K is not around. These deductions of Dora's true psychic causes for her symptoms perfectly characterize Freud's method of connection, and thus we see two opposing emotions fighting against each other within Dora, all connected to the primary emotions surrounding her father and Herr K. Freud realizes theconnecting several points, seemingly irrelevant or unrelated, point to a main network through two main methods, which are empiricism and belief in the narrow boundary of opposites. The former relies on investigating Dora's past and finding clues that connect her current symptoms to her troubled childhood. The latter, however, is the more specifically Freudian approach. Here Freud is based on the ideal that, when dealing with a hysterical patient, the use of opposites plays a fundamental role in the analysis. Since Dora's mind is "dominated by the opposition between reality and fantasy", it becomes even more difficult and complicated to break down her emotional barriers and see what the true emotions are hidden behind. An example of Freud's treatment of opposites is the holistic view of Dora's dream. In fact, Dora believes that “she won't be able to sleep peacefully until I'm out of the house.” However, in the dream world, his subconscious expresses this with an abstract inversion. In her dream, she says, "as soon as I was outside I woke up." Nonetheless, although it appears that Dora is offended by Herr K's advances towards her and must leave their home immediately, her dream suggests that her actual subconscious love for him had to be "suppressed with so much energy" that, once again, the opposite of what she really wants happens in her dream. As explained earlier through the bridging process, due to Dora's experience with the mixed connotations of her father's coughing fits in bed, and her generalized projection of her father's impotence onto all men, a line so subtle runs between his ideals of sexual desire and morbid anxiety. This is another reason why she further represses her love for Mr. K instead of giving in to it, as a stimulation of the oral and erogenous zone seems to awaken feelings of nausea and shortness of breath. To the average observer, such behavior would seem erratic, given that we have seen somatic symptoms emerge in Dora due to her love for Herr K., but for Freud all that needs to be done is to divide the fusion of opposites and connect the different facts together to piece together a picture of Dora's inner workings. This “juxtaposition of the most dissimilar tendencies” is at the origin of Dora's hysterical problems, since with such a thin line dividing such contrary ideals, “it is never possible to calculate In such a conflict of motives, on which side the decision will lean: whether towards the removal of repression or towards its strengthening”. This oxymoronic motif of the mutual dependence of contrary ideas is present throughout the analysis as a continuous background, which piece by piece reveals Dora's tumultuous but burning emotions of love, hate, anxiety and jealousy. So we see how they fit together in his mind, each with its own repression, displacement, or exaggeration, and each with its own complex justification for why. Freud thus gives an orderly sense to what would seem to be irrational hysteria, through his connection technique and the ability to recognize when a true emotion is masked using its opposite, the two typically Freudian skills, and make this case study so interesting . Furthermore, for all his intellectual ability, Freud seems to realize that Dora had transferred her feelings of adoration and anger from Herr K, her father, and from Frau K only at the end of the analysis. In hindsight, after the analyst pointed out this fact, we see how deep the relationship between the two was. Freud himself states that “no one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those semi-tamed demons which inhabit the human breast, and tries to struggle with them, can expect to emerge from the struggle unscathed.” A.