Shortly, this will be featured in the WPF Therapy bi monthly magazine. That review will be focused on the psychology of Freuds work and the translation here. Sign up @ WPF https://wpf.org.uk/
Freud was the great reflector of his age. He dug mostly into his own dreams for his now classic work THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS. He reflected his own thoughts and then opened them up to us. A hard thing to do. Before this, came his revolutionary writing on patients that were not himself. His most widely read, STUDIES IN HYSTERIA written with Joseph Breuer, is the source for Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate graphic novel HYSTERIA. A part of the Graphic Freud collection from those great people at SELFMADEHERO.
If you, like me, have studied Freud (usually it is an essential part of psychological or counselling training), then the studies in hysteria alongside his famous case, The Wolf Man are well known.
At their core is his framework, the understanding of therapy and its rewards. What Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate do here is counter point this with a walking biography. By walking, I should say sprinting. The early career of Sigmund Freud, filled with fret and issue, is lapped over. His training in neurological research, with that famous series of dissected Eels, done to find its reproductive organs, is here. Then as he wanted to wed, he established a therapeutic practice in Vienna, for the certainty of money and a good life. Flashed by. Cocaine promotion aside, he began working with the famed doctor Charcot at La Salpêtrière, a man of unique qualities of diagnosis (and maybe some issues with sexuality and female patients?). Now we get the middle distance running. You guess so. The source material begins here. Richard Appignanesi, (who is well known for his works that are all you need know) centres the themes. For the driven Freud needs a few bits to focus the read. They are a hat and prejudice.
Oscar Zarate images before the cases begin, compel the reader forward but seem never to over emphasis the coming horrors of Freuds work. Appignanesi tries to keep the text punchy but its hard work. As we more onto Freud’s work with his friend and colleague Joseph Breuer, the tempo, tone and text change. Introduced here are case histories of ‘Anna O.’, Fräulein Elisabeth von R. and Katherina. Famous cases that we cover and no doubt you might know about if you studied. Even if you didn’t. They aren’t for the faint of heart. More the enquiring mind. Which both Appignanesi in his sharpened prose and Zarate in his contorted frames, translate well. By the end, you are breathless. The pulse and the sprint for the finish is done.
Questions? I have had a few.
Does HYSTERIA translate the work of Freud for a unfamiliar audience? Well yes, mostly. As suggested, the leg work is all Zarate. He captures the visuals in both a medically prudent and powerfully potent way. attention is created. Interest is drawn. There are obvious images suggested by the sources. Cases are compelling enough in written form. However, Zarate creates an immediacy that is inherent in all Freud’s written works. With some help mind. Case histories like these, have inspired the development of clinical therapy. They are also well trodden. Covered, condensed, analysed (for what else will psychologists do). This all means that we can connect the dots of the known parts to help momentum. I even think the casual reader with a smattering of knowledge may do to.
Then, does the translation aid understanding? Here there are issues. The connecting theme, tries to hard to be over arching. It distracts. Freud doesn’t need a motif like this in my opinion. It feels clunky. Pulls you out. Finally, can it benefit the reader who knows Freuds work? Yes. Indeed it can. There are moments, which one suspects is the doing of Appignanesi, were you are giving the depth and breadth of Freud the man and the working man. This is important. You need to know him, to know his work. The historical bits are more than the strange and fascinating characters. They are the blocks for his research and later, his evolving theory for Psychodynamic therapy.
