One of
Sigmund Freud's
classic case studies. We
learn a lot about
transference and
counter-transference in the
psychoanalytic setting from her
experience, although it's
unclear whether
Freud really ever got a
clue.
Dora was a young intelligent bourgeoise Jewish woman in her late teens, who was suffering from hysteria.
Her family was friendly with a married couple; Dora's father was having an affair with the wife, which the husband was willing to tolerate if he could have Dora for himself. Freud saw her unwillingess to acquiesce as unreasonable, and her disinclination to continue psychoanalytic treatment with him as further evidence of her pathological refusal to see that it was all for her own good.
Please don't get me wrong - I have immense respect for Freud as a theoretician and social thinker, but I don't think I'd like him to be my therapist.