further contributions to the theory and technique of psycho-analysis

414 THEORY AND TECHNIQUE OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS LXXX
physician, concluding that this *
might well be a case of
hysteria of the Freudian type ', called me in to see her.
On the days following my arrival, I was able to take a
kind of rough psycho-analytic history of the case. The
patient was an attractive girl of nineteen. Her rather
tender-hearted father had pampered her; her mother, on
the other hand, although attentive and affectionate, treated
her a shade more strictly. She had already a strong
transference to the doctor who about eight days before had
put the limb in plaster; her attitude towards myself was
much more reserved. Still, with the assistance of my
colleague and of her parents, I was able to piece together
the following details. The patient had always behaved in
a curious fashion; whenever she
possible escaped from the
private quarters
of the castle down to the servants' hall.
Her special
friend here was a nurse, whom since earliest
childhood she had treated as a confidante. When the
countess was sixteen this nurse left the castle and went to
live on a distant part of the estate; nevertheless,
till she
was eighteen our patient continued to visit her crony there;
indeed, often spent whole days at a time with her, helped
her in her housework, scrubbed floors, fed the cattle,
cleaned out stalls, etc., all in opposition to her parents'
wishes. She detested the society of people of her own class ;
and only with the greatest difficulty could she be induced to
indeed when these social
pay calls or receive visitors, only
activities were quite
unavoidable. Aristocratic suitors, no
matter how were sent
eligible, brusquely about their business.
Some years
before she had suffered from a neurosis
which her mother described to me as follows : The patient
became suddenly depressed and tearful but would confide
to no one the cause of her In the
grief.
hope that social
amusement would cheer her up,
the took her to
mother^
Vienna, but in spite of this the emotional condition remained
unaltered. One night she came to her mother's bedroom
in tears, crept
into her bed, and made a clean breast of her
trouble. She was weighed down by a terrible fear: she
feared that she had been raped by some one whilst in a state
of unconsciousness. The attack had probably
been made