me organic lesion, and if nothing physical was discovered it was assumed that there must something be something in the brain to account for the disturbance”(Brill). During his first years of practice he relied on hypnotism and electrotherapy. Freud eventually ran into a wall. He realized not everyone was able to reach a hypnotic state and even if they did results were often temporary or short-lived. In 1889 Freud teamed up with Josef Breuer, who was working with a patient referred to as Anna O. Breuer discovered that her frustrations were bottled up. Also, referred to as the strangulated affect. The patient could not vent her frustration because the situation she was trapped in rendered this impossible. Breuer would hypnotize her and encouraged her to express her frustrations through abreaction. This method proved successful and freed her from her repressed thoughts. In 1883 Freud and Breuer wrote “Studies on Hysteria”. This book was based on their research of Anna O. and their works on psychoanalysis. This period is often said to be the formal beginning of psychoanalysis. In 1897 Freud took on the task of his own self-analysis. During this time he kept close contact with Wilhelm Fliess, who was working in Berlin. Freud would pass-on his interpretations of his findings to Fliess to review. His analysis would carry-on for two years before he diagnosed himself as suffering from anxiety neurosis caused by sexual tension. In 1900 he would release “The Interpretation of Dreams” which covered this research and findings. Freud first became interested in the aspects of the ego system while studying hypnosis. Freud could not understand how a person’s mind could forget traumatic experiences while conscious, but once under hypnosis they could recall specific details to the events. “The forgotten material represented something painful, something disagreeable, or something frightful, or obno...
