"He had then proceeded to throw suspicion upon the girl, saying that he had heard from Frau K. that she took no interest in anything but sexual matters, and that she used to read Mantegazza’s Physiology of Love and books of that sort in their house on the lake. It was most likely, he had added, that she had been over-excited by such reading and had merely ‘fancied’ the whole scene she had described."[1]
In Sexuality: the New Critical Idiom, Joseph Bristow presents the idea that sexuality is ever present in our lives and thus an element of our world which exists both in the conscious and the unconscious. Whether sexuality is an item of oppression or expression is debatable; however, Bristow’s understanding of sexuality as ever at hand in our daily lives and actions helps readers to understand the writings of Sigmund Freud who has been interpreted as saying “unconscious processes cannot be captured in the language of the conscious ones” (24).[2]
Bristow’s idea that “Sexuality…is the most powerful factor in individual and social existence” (27) is in part supported by the ideas of Weininger when he made the claim that there “is no friendship between men that has not an element of sexuality in it” (40). If this is true, then at least for the male, sexuality is present in every relationship the individual has; thus, making the individual entirely unable to escape sexuality. Since Freud has shown us that the unconscious is a portion of our brains which contains actions and thoughts that have been condensed and displaced and the individual is unable to escape sexuality in the every day, the unconscious must include ideas regarding sexuality which have been stored away for safe keeping and can be recalled through psychoanalysis.
Returning to Freud’s initial quote at the beginning of this essay, Dora is a prime example of the ways in which sexuality influences our conscious and unconscious. Although Dora was not aware of the impact while reading Physiology of Love, her unconscious was taking note of the sexuality within the text. This knowledge would be condensed and stored until her encounter with Herr K. which called upon her former thoughts from the text and brought about her false accusations.
The impact of the unconscious on every day living is extensive when psychoanalyzed; however, entirely unnoted by others. Through use of the case study, a better understanding of sexuality and its impact on the every day thought process can be determined. Bristow’s understanding of sexuality as ever at hand in our daily lives, when applied to the case studies of Sigmund Freud, can help readers to better understand sexuality as a form of oppression (unconscious) and expression (conscious).
[1] Freud, Sigmund. Dora An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria. New York: Touchstone, 1963.
[2] Cohen, Josh. How To Read Freud. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.
