An Analysis Of Dora's View

As stated in the translator's preface by Shaun Whiteside, “no one involved in the narration is entirely dependable,” (xxxi) not even Freud himself. In this essay, I will analyze how Dora’s story is shaped and possibly distorted by Freud in three main ways: by omitting parts of the story and forgoing proper fact checking, being influenced by the external bias of society’s views of women and finally being influenced by internal bias motivated by his need to prove and publish his own theories. Ultimately, I will be arguing that in this case study, Freud can be seen as an unreliable narrator.
First of all, I will examine Freud’s presentation events to determine whether Freud accurately reported facts as they were presented to him and how much …show more content…
It isn’t bad to be wrong sometimes but it is problematic to believe that you must always be correct. The language Freud uses suggests that he is adamant about his conclusions and presents his subjective views as objective. He uses phrases like “there was no doubt,” (32), her “goal was obvious,” (35) “the obvious conclusion,” (44) and many more examples. Even if she disagrees with his analysis such as saying that she’s wearing a small bag because it’s in fashion, he will just dismiss it as repression of the fact that her “bag is nothing other than a representation of the genitals” (66). He has a rigid belief of the accuracy of his work despite the fact that Freud has changed both his methods and his analysis of parts of Dora’s story over time. Freud himself admitted that “psychoanalytic techniques have undergone a fundamental revolution since the studies were written. Back then, the work arose out of the symptoms and their solutions advanced sequentially towards its goal. I have since abandoned that technique. Now I the patient to determine the subject of my daily work” (7). He confidently asserts that “the new technique is far superior to the old, and without fear of contradiction it is the only possible one” (8). Having seen how his own methodology has evolved over the years, it would be better for him to acknowledge that his current techniques used with Dora may be retired later on. In addition, he isn’t always consistent with his interpretations. One of the most notable of these is when he “failed to guess in time, and to inform the patient that her homosexual (gynephilic) feelings of love for Frau K. were the strongest of the unconscious currents in her mental life” (109). If he missed Dora’s “deep-rooted homosexual love for Frau K.,” (98) which he retrospectively deemed so influential in the case, it is possible that