Josef Breuer: biography of this pioneer of psychoanalysis

The physician and physiologist Josef Breuer He is best known for using the cathartic method for the first time in the famous case of Anna O., which would inspire his disciple Sigmund Freud to create psychoanalysis. However, Breuer's views differed from Freud's in central ways.

Breuer is a relevant figure in the history of neurophysiology and psychoanalysis. In this article we will review her biography, her contributions to these two fields and her relationship with Freud; for this it is necessary to also describe the prominent role of Anna O. in the field of hysteria.

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Biography of Josef Breuer

Josef Breuer (1842-1925) studied Medicine at the University of Vienna and during his first years of professional practice he worked as an assistant to Johann von Oppolzer and later Karl Hering, a physiologist known for his studies on visual perception and eye movements.

Breuer performed important contributions in the field of neurophysiology

. During his collaboration with Hering he described the role of the vagus nerve in respiratory response; this would give rise to the concept of the “Hering-Breuer reflex”, which is still valid today.

He was also one of the first to propose that equilibrium depends on the movement of the fluid in the semicircular canals of the inner ear and the information the brain receives regarding these displacements.

For much of his life, Breuer worked as a family physician and as a personal physician to many intellectuals living in Vienna, including the philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano. He was also professor of physiology at the University of Vienna, where he instructed Sigmund Freud, with whom he would later collaborate.

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The case of Anna O.

In 1880 Breuer began treating Bertha von Pappenheim, a hysterical patient who played a fundamental role in the emergence of psychoanalysis. He would go down in history as "Anna O." since this was the pseudonym that Breuer and Freud gave him in their joint work Studies on hysteria, the cornerstone of early psychoanalysis.

According to Breuer, Pappenheim had two personalities that became increasingly different as treatment progressed. While the former was sad and apprehensive, the latter had a more childish and explosive character. This case is one of the first recorded examples of dissociative identity disorder (or "multiple personality").

Breuer noted that Pappenheim's symptoms, consisting mostly of partial paralysis, muteness, and blindness, temporarily remitted. her when she talked about them under hypnosis and attributed a cause. The patient was also relieved when she spoke about her dreams or her hallucinations, and it was her own preferences that guided Breuer.

Pappenheim called this type of intervention "Speech cure" or "chimney cleaning"; thus the cathartic method was born, consisting of hypnotizing the patient to remember the traumatic event that triggered the symptom (or to invent such a memory) and thus eliminate the associated negative emotions, and consequently the symptom.

Freud and the "Studies on Hysteria"

The case of Anna O. inspired Sigmund Freud to write the book Studies on hysteria in collaboration with his teacher Breuer. This work, which appeared in 1895, describes the treatment of Bertha von Pappenheim and four other women using hypnosis and the cathartic method.

At the theoretical level, Freud and Breuer defended two different hypotheses in the book: while the first was of the opinion that hysteria It was always due to traumatic memories related to sexuality, according to Breuer there could also be causes neurophysiological.

Contrary to what is told in "Studies on Hysteria", Anna O. she did not fully recover from Breuer's treatment but instead she ended up being hospitalized. However, over time her symptoms eased and she became a prominent figure in German feminism at the time, as well as a staunch opponent of psychoanalysis.

The relationship between Breuer and Freud rapidly deteriorated. Freud not only displayed a confidence in the cathartic method that Breuer considered unjustified, but he mythologized the case of Anna O. to promote what would become psychoanalysis. Towards the end of his life, Breuer saw Freud on the street and made a gesture of greeting him, but his disciple ignored him.

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Breuer's legacy

The "speech cure" that Breuer developed with the invaluable collaboration of Bertha von Pappenheim is would become the seed of Freud's psychoanalysis and, consequently, of conventional psychotherapy of the next century.

Breuer's hypotheses regarding the case of Anna O. triggered interest in unconscious processes, especially around the etiology of hysteria and other neuroses. However, Breuer distanced himself from Freud because he disagreed with his emphasis on psychosexual trauma as the sole cause of these disorders.

Breuer believed that hypnosis and the cathartic method could facilitate the creation of false memories, although these were felt by the patients as true. Many later critics of Freud would agree with Breuer and her more cautious approach.

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Bibliographic references:

• Breuer, J. & Freud, S. (1893-1895). Studies on hysteria. In Complete Works, Volume II. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu.

• Leahey, T. H. (2004). History of Psychology, 6th Edition. Madrid: Pearson Prentice Hall.