f her time, she tries to ‘resist the system’ by the Victorian feminine means of hysteria; Dora uses it to turn the tables on the domineering men in her life. Equipped with hysteria as her weapon, she stops the conspirators dead in their tracks.Freud’s incapacity to cure his female patients illustrates that, as a symbol of patriarchal society and thus the focus of a woman’s destruction, he cannot possibly fulfill his role as healer and protector. The tragic issue surrounding Freud and his female patients is not their psychological malaise but instead his helpless attempt to cure them; Freud is as unfulfilled as his patients. Freud must consciously realize that gender roles are detrimental to his profession and then reject them as falsehoods. By assigning women the same desires and functions as men, Freud will be one step closer to resolving his inner turmoil. Freud is a victim of female gender roles because they are responsible for his curing anxieties. Until Freud rejects female gender roles, he will never fulfill his phantasy to ameliorate the sick and, in effect, his Victorian male role in society....
