Phillip Bauer, for treatment for aphonia and depression, brought Dora to Freud in the Fall of 1900 for psychoanalysis which Freud later recounts in "Dora". Freud was anxious and determined to prove out his theory that sexuality provides the "motive power for every symptom [of hysteria]" (Lawall 1409). He goes to great lengths to, in his mind, achieve this end. Decker writes that this accounted in large part for the large number of sexual interpretations he made to Dora (123). .
Freud uses many terms throughout his analysis to describe Dora's behavior and unconscious motives. Repression is the exclusion from consciousness of impulses or emotions that would otherwise cause stress (Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 136). Freud uses this term to describe Dora's innermost feelings for Herr K., she has an attraction and love for the man that she represses. Freud told Dora, after receiving a jewel case from Herr K, "He gave you a jewel case; so you are to give him your jewel-case" (Lawall 1389). Dora was under a great deal of pressure from her family to maintain her virginity so she continued to repress her sexual feelings toward Herr K. Displacement is the transfer of emotion from a person object or situation to a less potent source of distress (Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 136). Freud uses this term to describe Dora's feelings of pain and congestion in her chest to offset the feelings felt when Herr K pressed his erection against her vagina while kissing her in his office. .
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Freud refers to Somatic Compliance as a term "which may afford the unconscious mental processes a physical outlet" (Lawall 1375). When this physical outlet doesn't happen, then a phobia or symptom (psychical symptom) will show as opposed to a hysterical reaction or symptom.
Dora continued to open, insert, and close her "reticule" for an hour indicating a "symptomatic act" that was an "unmistakable pantomimic announcement of what she would like to do this them-namely to masturbate" (Lawall 1394).
