SPEAKER_00: Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month, we're talking about women who've made important contributions to the world of health and wellness. Today's Womanican is one of the most famous patients in history. You might know her as Anna O. Today, we're talking about Berta Papenheim. Berta was born on February 27, 1859, in Vienna, Austria. She grew up in a wealthy Orthodox Jewish family and received an education to match. She mastered several languages, studied religion and practiced needlepoint, piano, and horseback riding. Years later, Berta would pen an essay calling her education suffocating. When Berta turned 20, she began to experience symptoms of psychological stress. Her symptoms appeared around the time her father fell ill and worsened after his death two years later. She suffered from convulsions, shivers, forgetfulness, phobias, and even partial paralysis, deafness, and blindness. She was prone to telling fantastic fairytale-like stories, which shook on the form of tragedies after her father's death. In 1880, Berta's family called on internist Josef Breuer. He was well-respected as a physician, worked in Berta's social circle, and would later mentor Sigmund Freud. Breuer diagnosed Berta with hysteria, a then-common diagnosis for women. It was often attributed to women who had ungovernable emotional distress, no matter the situation that may have brought them to that distress. After her diagnosis, Berta developed more symptoms, including speaking exclusively in English. Breuer decided to treat Berta with hypnosis, a widely practiced technique at the time. Early into their treatments, Breuer realized Berta's condition improved when she spoke about her dreams and stories. She called these moments of storytelling talking cures or chimney sweeping. Breuer thought these exercises might help Berta to unfold her suppressed painful memories and thoughts, which would in turn help ease her physical symptoms. While some of Berta's severe symptoms may have eased, she continued to exhibit her behaviors throughout treatment. In 1882, she was transferred to Bellevue Sanatorium in Switzerland. She was readmitted to several psychological institutions over the next five years that the diagnosis was always hysteria. These years included harsh treatments for Berta. Many physicians at the time relied on sedatives, chloral hydrate, and morphine, and as a result, Berta developed an addiction to those treatments. In 1888, Berta moved to Frankfurt, where her mother's side of the family lived. There, she began to recover from her illnesses. She dove into writing, publishing a book of her fairy tales, and several essays. She also became involved in Jewish social work, volunteering in soup kitchens, and an orphanage for young Jewish girls. By 1890, she was able to live independently. During this time, Berta's more infamous alias was born. Breuer, along with his protege Sigmund Freud, published the story of Berta's case in 1895. It was part of a book called Studies on Hysteria, in which they publicized Berta's story, calling her Anna O. It became one of the fundamental publications in psychology. Anna O's story is different from Berta's. As a study in psychology, her story has been edited and reinterpreted, leading to a mythologized version of Berta's actual experience. For example, in 1909, another psychologist proposed that Anna O's symptoms were an expression of incestuous fantasies towards her father, including an episode in which she underwent a hysteric pregnancy and claimed Breuer was the father. Despite the lack of evidence for these theories, Freud presented the interpretation to his audiences as fact. Even decades after her death, Berta's story continued to be editorialized. In 1953, a man named Ernest Jones published a paper that not only repopularized the alleged hysterical pregnancy story, but also revealed Berta Pappenheim as the woman behind Anna O. The executor of Berta's will openly condemned the story, but Berta's time as Breuer's patient is still the subject of speculation today. Perhaps more evidently, Anna O was often called Freud's first patient, when in fact, she and Freud never even met. Meanwhile, Berta continued to live her life far from the fame of Anna O. She became highly involved in feminist and anti-fascist movements. In 1899, she translated Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women and published a play criticizing the economic and sexual exploitation of women. She also founded the League of Jewish Women, which offered vocational guidance to help women gain financial independence. Her missions to support women were varied and plentiful. She founded a home for unwed mothers and children, translated a 17th-century Yiddish women's Bible, and continued to write essays, poems, and books for women. By the 1920s, she was an established feminist leader. In 1935, Berta was diagnosed with an illness that was likely cancer. While she was very sick, she was summoned by the Gestapo regarding anti-Hitler statements made by one of the residents of her women's shelters. Shortly after returning home, she died in her sleep on May 28, 1936. She was 77 years old. In her will, she asked those who visited her grave to leave a small stone. She said it was a quiet promise to serve the mission of women's duties and women's joys. All month, we're highlighting women who changed the landscape of health and wellness. For more information and for pictures of the women we're talking about, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanaka Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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