Two Unpublished Texts: Another Tale of the Baal Shem and A Human Fable

© 2009 bridges association in his 1953 biography of Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones revealed that Anna O., the first case study in Freud and Joseph Breuer’s Studies on Hysteria, was none other than Bertha Pappenheim (1859–1936)—the feminist leader, pioneering social worker, activist, and author.1 Ever since Jones’s revelation, Pappenheim’s later accomplishments have been largely obscured by her role as the famous young hysteric whose invention of the cathartic method or “talking cure” became the cornerstone of the history of psychoanalysis. Pappenheim’s achievements after her recovery, however, reveal her to be one of the most productive, influential, and controversial Jewish women of her time. As a feminist leader, she founded and led the League of Jewish Women in Germany and co-founded the International League of Jewish Women. As a social activist she was at the two UnpUblished texts: another tale of the baal shem and a hUman fable