Guises of Desire - a biographical novel exploring the early history of psychoanalysis

[Hilda]

My novel Guises of Desire, based on the case of Bertha Pappenheim, the 'founding patient' of psychoanalysis, is now out on Kindle.

Vienna 1880. A wealthy young Jewish woman, Bertha Pappenheim, falls ill, manifesting a series of bizarre symptoms. Diagnosis hysteria.
Her doctor, Josef Breuer, treats her with hypnosis and a new form of therapy called the 'talking cure'.
Some of her symptoms abate. At the same time the treatment arouses in Bertha a turmoil of primal emotions which spiral out of control and ultimately lead to the breakdown of her relationship with her doctor.
A vividly imagined account of the case of Bertha Pappenheim – the ‘Anna O’ whose treatment formed the basis of Freudian psychoanalysis – Guises of Desire presents the story of a young woman’s struggle to survive a repressive upbringing, neurological disorders, drug addiction and a pathological attachment to the doctor who misdiagnosed her.

www.hildareilly.com
www.berthapappenheim.weebly.com