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The material on this case is so large that I cannot hope to present all of it in one lecture. I shall therefore have to choose and eliminate, at the risk of omitting many things of importance. But I shall endeavor to present a well articulated skeleton of the case, leaving it to you to fill in the gaps from your own experience.
The patient, a dressmaker, twenty—four years old, is intellectually more advanced than might be expected from her education. She exhibits good judgment and well developed insight. She was born in Poland, and lived under European small town conditions up to the age of thirteen, coming to America about ten years ago. She was the fifth of eight children, two of whom died in early childhood. She and her younger sister were brought to this country by a brother who was her immediate senior. The three oldest children, one brother and two sisters, as well as the mother, are still living in Europe. Her father died of asthma seven years ago, when about fifty—eight years of age. Her two oldest sisters are described by the patient as neurotic characters. One of them is considered a neurotic and had an attack of mental disturbance after a confinement, while the younger occasionally has crying spells.
The history falls into the following rough divisions: childhood, relationship to her mother, relationship to her brother, dreamlife, and symptoms of the neurosis. As I have already stated she was the fifth child in a family of six, the children being born far apart, the oldest more than twenty years older than the patient. Due to this, as far as she can remember, she felt neglected and abused. I may state that the analysis did not succeed in revealing any data about the first years of her life. The earliest material which I obtained belongs to the period from the fifth to the ninth year. About her reactions to the birth of the younger children, which would have