Early polarisation
Freud's case study was condemned in its first review as a form of mental masturbation, an immoral misuse of his medical position.[18] A British physician, Ernest Jones, was led by the study to become a psychoanalyst, gaining "a deep impression of there being a man in Vienna who actually listened to every word his patients said to him...a true psychologist".[19] Carl Jung also took up the study enthusiastically.[20]
Middle years
By mid-century, Freud's study had gained general psychoanalytic acceptance. Otto Fenichel, for example, citing her cough as evidence of identification with Frau K and her mutism as a reaction to the loss of Herr K.[21] Jacques Lacan singled out for technical praise Freud's stressing of Dora's implication in "the great disorder of her father's world ... she was in fact the mainspring of it".[22]
Erik Erikson, however, took issue with Freud's claim that Dora must necessarily have responded positively at some level to Herr K's advances: "I wonder how many of us can follow without protest today Freud's assertion that a healthy young girl would, under such circumstances, have considered Herr K's advances 'neither tactless nor offensive'."[23]
Feminist and later criticisms
Second-wave feminism would develop Erikson's point, as part of a wider critique of Freud and psychoanalysis. Freud's comment that "This was surely just the situation to call up distinct feelings of sexual excitement in a girl of fourteen", in reference to Dora's being kissed by a "young man of prepossessing appearance",[24] was seen as revealing a crass insensitivity to the realities of adolescent female sexuality.
Toril Moi was speaking for many when she accused Freud of phallocentrism, and his study of being a "Representation of Patriarchy";[25] while Hélène Cixous would see Dora as a symbol of "silent revolt against male power over women's bodies and women's language... a resistant heroine".[26] (Catherine Clément, however, would argue that as a mute hysteric, in flight from therapy, Dora was surely far less of a feminist role model than the independent career woman Anna O.)[27]
Even those sympathetic to Freud took issue with his inquisitorial approach, Janet Malcolm describing him as "more like a police inspector interrogating a suspect than like a doctor helping a patient".[28] Peter Gay, too, would question Freud's "insistent tone... The rage to cure was upon him"[29] and conclude that not only the transference but also his own countertransference needed more attention from Freud at this early stage of development of psychoanalytic technique.[30]
