This volume grew out of a New York University interdisciplinary conference held on May 4 and 5, 1995, to celebrate the centennial of Breuer and Freud's monumental Studies on Hysteria (1895). It is refreshing to have a volume on the early history of psychoanalysis that introduces social and historical perspectives on the subject of hysteria, and whose contributors have endeavored to bring the freshness of contemporary concerns to bear on a seminal work.

Although the seventeen contributors approach their subject from varying vantage points, the editors seek in their introduction to provide a guiding vision through an emphasis on feminist and interpersonal themes. The editors write, “We foreground