Hysteria: Graphic Freud Series - Softcover

Appignanesi, Richard; Zárate, Oscar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1906838992 ISBN 13: 9781906838997

Publisher: SelfMadeHero, 2015

Synopsis

Hysteria is a graphic novel account of the first steps, errors, and frustrations of Sigmund Freud’s career, which would lead to the foundation of a revolutionary new clinical therapy: psychoanalysis. The book traces Freud’s early training in neurological research and medicine; the crucial turning-point of his studies with Jean-Martin Charcot at La Salpêtrière; and his establishment of a therapeutic practice in Vienna. 
 
Perfectly matching text and illustrations, Hysteria recounts Freud’s interest in his colleague Josef Breuer’s "Anna O" case study, as well as giving an account of his own case histories of hysteria, particularly the treatment of Fräulein Elisabeth von R. The studies brought to life in this authoritative, beautifully illustrated graphic novel are collected in Freud and Breuer’s co-authored Studies in Hysteria, which marked the birth of psychoanalysis.

About this title

About the Author:

Oscar Zarate is an award-winning graphic novelist. His books include A Small Killing (with Alan Moore), It’s Dark in London, and The Park. He lives in London.
 
Richard Appignanesi originated the For Beginners... series. His own bestselling titles for that series include Freud and Existentialism, both illustrated by Oscar Zarate. He also edited the Manga Shakespeare series. He lives in London.

From Publishers Weekly:

Graphic biographies are entering a more mature, nuanced phase, demonstrated by Appignanesi's entry in the Graphic Freud series. He doesn't aim for a thumbnail encapsulation of a man's life work, as in Appignanesi's own For Beginners series. Instead, this book zeroes in on Freud's early career as an ambitious, fame-seeking therapist circling two problematic issues. First are the broad range of psychological and traumatic problems that clueless doctors in the late 1800s diagnosed as "hysteria" in many female patients. Appignanesi's chatty but studious narrative follows Freud from studying in Paris with neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot—whose fixations on theatrical symptoms and the uterus as the cause of all his patients' problems were later debunked—to his later incarnation as an empathetic (though still sexuality-fixated) explorer of the psyche. The second issue, Freud's insistence on the curative and non-addictive qualities of cocaine, is a sharp reflection on medical hubris. The backdrop of Freud's exile in London, after having fled the Nazis, adds a melancholic tone to the thoughtful text and Zarate's expressionistic renderings. (Oct.)\n

About this edition

• Publisher: SelfMadeHero
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1906838992
• ISBN 13: 9781906838997
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168