Sigmund Freud

The Little Hans case, conducted largely by the child's father under Freud's supervision, became a classic demonstration of Oedipal theory. A reassessment drawing on declassified documents highlighted long-neglected factors: the mother's severe difficulties, violence towards the infant sister, parental conflict and family trauma.

State of the evidence

Documented

A historical review of 43 cases treated by Freud between 1907 and 1939 concluded that his actual practice frequently diverged from principles subsequently associated with psychoanalytic technique: anonymity, neutrality, confidentiality and limits on relationships outside sessions. It particularly documented information-sharing and directive interventions inconsistent with a strict reading of later rules.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Freudian theories of female psychosexual development, particularly the centrality of castration and 'penis envy', attracted objections early within psychoanalysis and later major feminist criticism. Karen Horney and others challenged the view that femininity was defined as a derivative of or deficiency relative to masculinity.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Freud presented the Wolf Man, Sergius Pankejeff, as a major case of analytic reconstruction and reported a significant therapeutic result. Yet the patient remained vulnerable, underwent further analyses and treatments for many years and became a critical witness to the construction of his own case.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The Rat Man's process notes enable a rare comparison between raw clinical material and publication. The Library of Congress observes that Freud shaped the case to serve his theory and sometimes exaggerated the beneficial effects and duration of treatment. More recent studies also examine the omission of explicitly Jewish content between the notes and the published case.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The patient known as Dora discontinued treatment after several weeks, which Freud subsequently published as an exemplary case. Psychoanalytic and feminist reassessments criticised his insistence on particular sexual interpretations, insufficient attention to countertransference and his handling of a young patient's refusals after she faced advances from an adult.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Having argued that actual early sexual experiences played a major causal role in hysteria, Freud largely abandoned this 'seduction theory', assigning greater importance to fantasy and infantile sexuality. This became a major controversy: some critics accused him of minimising real abuse, while historians show that his original theory already relied heavily on analytic reconstructions rather than direct accounts.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Freud referred his patient Emma Eckstein to Wilhelm Fliess, whose nasogenital reflex theory he then supported. The nasal operation performed by Fliess went disastrously wrong, notably after gauze was left inside the nasal cavity, causing severe haemorrhaging. The incident became emblematic of the risks of Freud's collaboration with Fliess and subsequent clinical rationalisations.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Anna O. was Josef Breuer's patient, not Freud's. Nevertheless, Breuer and Freud incorporated her case into Studies on Hysteria, and it gradually became a founding narrative of the 'talking cure'. Historians have challenged the simple account of cathartic recovery and reconstructed a much more complex clinical course.

State of the evidence

Documented

Freud recommended cocaine to his friend and colleague Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, who was dependent on morphine. The episode resulted in severe cocaine dependence alongside morphine addiction and became one of the most frequently cited historical failures of Freud's initial medical enthusiasm for the substance.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated