LECTURE ONE

Sigmund Freud, a Viennese physician, was invited by G. Stanley Hall, a senior and

influential American psychologist, to visit Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and deliver a series of lectures on his novel views about abnormal psychology. The invitation was significant because it came from a leading figure in American psychology and because Clark University was a prestigious institution. The lecture series was part of a conference to celebrate the university's 20th anniversary, which was expected to attract the best American professors and students of psychology and psychiatry.

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Sigmund Freud was lecturing on the history of psychoanalysis to an audience of non-medical professionals. He begins by stating that he is not the creator of psychoanalysis, but rather that he was inspired by the work of Dr. Joseph Breuer.
Freud then proceeds to give a brief case study of one of Breuer's patients who was a young woman who was suffering from a variety of physical and mental symptoms, including paralysis, blindness, and loss of speech. Breuer hypothesized that the patient's symptoms were not due to a physical illness, but to hysteria which is a mental disorder characterized by a variety of physical symptoms that have an organic basis.

Freud then proceeds to give a brief case study of one of Breuer's patients, a young woman who was suffering from a variety of physical and mental symptoms, including paralysis, blindness, and loss of speech. Breuer hypothesized that the patient's symptoms were not due to a physical illness, but instead to hysteria, a mental disorder characterized by various physical symptoms that have no organic basis.
Breur developed a new method of treating hysteria, which he called psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis involves having the patient talk about her symptoms and her life experiences in order to bring unconscious conflicts and emotions to the surface. Breuer/s patient eventually recovered from her symptoms after undergoing psychoanalysis.
Freud was impressed by Breuer's success in treating this patient, and he began to develop his own theories and techniques of psychoanalysis. Freud eventually became the most famous and influential psychoanalyst in history.

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The patient, who was given the pseudonym Anna O, suffered from a variety of physical and mental symptoms. Dr. Breuer hypothesized that her symptoms were caused by repressed memories of traumatic events in her life.
Over time, Anna O. was able to recall and process many of her repressed memories, and her symptoms began to disappear. One example, Anna was able to cure her symptom of being unable to drink water by remembering a time when she had seen her dog drink from a glass and became disgusted.

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Freud continues discussing the role of repressed memories and emotions in the development of hysteria. One of Anna O's repressed memories that she remembered was a time when she saw a snake near her sick father's bed.

Freud compares hysterical symptoms to memory symbols, such as the monuments in London that commemorate historical events. He argues that hysterics, like the people who would stand all day in from of these monuments, are fixated on the past and unable to live in the present.
Freud then discusses the two factors that contribute to the development of hysteria:

repressed emotions

When people suppress their emotions, these emotions become converted into physical symptoms and Freud calls this "hysterical conversion."

abnormal bodily innervations.

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Breuer also discovered that it was possible to cure these symptoms by having the patients recall these experiences under hypnosis.
In Freud's lecture, he states that these findings can be explained by the existence of unconscious mental states. These states are separate from conscious awareness and can continue to influence the mind and body even if the person is not aware of them.

In this lecture, Freud criticizes Breuer's concept of hypnoidal states as being too narrow. Freud argued that the unconscious mental states can have a variety of causes, including childhood experiences, repressed emotions, and conflicts.
Freud concludes this first lecture by stating that psychoanalysis is still in its early stages of development and that it has the potential to provide a comprehensive explanation of the causes and treatment of hysteria.