Psycho-Analysis of a Stammering Girl

In May 1941, in Budapest, I was consulted by the parents of an 11½-year-old girl, who had a very severe stammer. In the following two years I succeeded in removing this stammer by speech therapy. The details of this treatment lie outside the scope of this paper. The girl's stammer manifested itself in three different types of violent spasms, which she later characterized as an 'airy', a 'trill', and a 'strangulated' stammer, respectively. The 'airy' stammer occurred when she exhaled immediately after breaking off the spasm of a consonant at the beginning of a word; with the 'trill' stammer the spasm was repeatedly stopped and re-started; the 'strangulated' form of the stammer consisted of a complete blockage of any sound at all. All three forms occurred with explosive consonants as well as with spirants. The length of the spasm of the initial speechsound varied. The girl's mouth was shapeless and the lips were bitten. No synkinesis was observable. The stammer occurred about once in every sentence.

At school Eve was among the best pupils, but she was considerably handicapped by her speech defect, and it was no longer to be hoped that she would outgrow it. She was the daughter of strictly orthodox Jewish parents. Mentally, as well as physically, she seemed far above average for her age, and she achieved excellent results with little effort, even in subjects in which she was not particularly gifted. In those days I thought that it was her ambition that spurred her on in every sphere, but that only in speech she failed from the outset. It soon became clear that she had an excellent understanding of her speech defect and a keen appreciation of the method adopted to overcome it. Contact between us was easily established. She worked seriously and, by the spring of 1943, was speaking quite freely, first with me and then also at home. Towards the end of the summer term stammering hardly ever occurred at school, and eventually she was able to recite in her Scr