Title Details

At the end of the nineteenth century, some clinical symptoms challenged the rational knowledge of medicine. Unable to physically identify what afflicted some women, they were labeled hysterical. The picture became clearer after Sigmund Freud developed a new field of medical science, making invaluable discoveries and proposing a new form of treatment: psychotherapy. In order to understand this epistemological revolution, Professor José Arthur Molina suggests examining all that surrounds this discovery, the politics, society, literature, and art in Freud’s Vienna.

The findings of this research are in the book 'What Freud Said About Women'. The goal is to investigate how Freud, subverting the scientific assumptions of his time, created his models and innovative concepts, such as the unconscious. In the same way, a subsidiary objective is to understand how the modern world is established after the disintegration of the old hierarchy between sexes. By following this path, Freud’s phallic logic faces difficulties, which he himself would mention in his later works. From his research and listening to countless patients, Freud established a unique theory, with concepts such as unconsciousness, drive, and a method that included listening, free association, and transference.

The co-protagonism of both, the role of women and the Freudian theory, is approached by seeking inspiration in art and poetry. Following a suggestion by Freud himself, Molina ventures into the artistic and literary fields to know the kind of woman that was being shaped at that time.