Who is Dora in Freud's case study, Dora?

The whole case history centers on “Dora,” a pseudonym for Ida Bauer, an eighteen-year-old girl with hysteria that Freud treated in the late nineteenth century. She began experiencing hysterical symptoms when she was eight years old, which culminated in a series of physical and behavioral issues that led her father to bring her to Freud for treatment.

Even though Dora was a real person, everything we know about her from reading the case history is through Freud’s perspective. He describes Dora as an attractive and intellectually precocious young girl; however, when her hysterical symptoms began to increase, she was perpetually in “low spirits,” and was on bad terms with her parents (16). She began to avoid social interaction and instead focused her attention on attending lectures and self-study. Yet, beyond her hysterical symptoms, Dora expressed loving and maternal tendencies, fostering close relationships with Frau K. and her children. She is also strong-willed and is naturally independent – she ends treatment with Freud when she has had enough, and goes off on her own.

Dora exhibits tender feelings toward her father, which Freud contends is an Oedipal impulse, or in other words, a continuation of her childhood affection for him. She also sees her father as an ally, which is heightened by the fact they both suffer from mental illnesses. Dora had become his “confidante” as a child, nursing him during a period of illness (57). All of these factors indicate that Dora viewed her primary caretaker as her father, and related to him the most. In contrast, she dislikes her mother, with whom she had a tense relationship.

Freud also indicates that Dora has bisexual tendencies, which is seen in her attraction to both of the K.’s. Freud writes that her “homosexual . . . love for Frau K. was the strongest unconscious current in her mental life” (110). He implies that her strong friendships with her former governess and Frau K. conceal an affection that is homosexual in nature. Despite this assertion, Freud focuses most of the case history on Dora's attraction toward Herr K.