Studies on hysteria--Katharina.

Freud's account of his meeting with the country maid, Katharina, is re-evaluated from a contemporary psychoanalytic perspective. Freud's original explanation of Katharina's hysteria was based on a set of quantitative-economic assumptions and a psychic model based on conflict and defense. A modern analytic perspective would shift the emphasis from the economics of discharge to the aims and objects of sexual activity. The understanding of sensual pleasure focuses more specifically on the related complex of intentions, purposes, meanings, and motives, as well as on the qualities, characteristics, and patterns of interaction with important objects.