University community gathers to celebrate faculty-published book “The Torch.”

University community gathers to celebrate faculty-published book “The Torch.”

Torch photo / Malak Kassem

St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences hosted its first “Bookmarks” event of the semester featuring Professor Gabriel Brownstein and his newly published book, “The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim: The Woman Who Invented Freud’s Talking Cure.” on Oct. 1 in the University Writing Center in St. Augustine Hall.

The “Bookmark” The series provides “opportunities for people in our community to come together to celebrate our achievements as writers.” The event was open to administrators. Lecturers, students and staff.

Brownstein explained that Pappenheim was a prominent German feminist of the early 20th century and also the original patient of “what would become psychoanalysis.” The book tells Pappenheim’s story, from its history to its impact on modern psychology today.

“If you had told me 10 years ago that I would have written this book, I would have been shocked,” said Brownstein, who began by reading the beginning of the text to the audience.

He described a scene with his father in old age, who had a series of health problems and introduced Brownstein to Pappenheim.

“I started this book as a way to connect with my father,” he said. “It took me on this very complicated journey into the history of psychotherapy, psychiatry and our understanding of the mind and body.”

“The question is, who is this woman and what is this disease?”

Brownstein explained that she essentially came up with the “Talking Cure,” which she also called “chimney sweeping”; the idea of ​​speaking as a means of therapy.

The book ultimately makes a connection between Pappenheim’s character, the broader concept of neurology, and the development of understanding of hysteria, now commonly known as conversion disorder.

“The worst thing in medicine, in my opinion, happened when a British neurologist, Eliot Slater, said that hysteria does not exist and that it is not a real disease,” Brownstein said.

The book also became a journalistic endeavor, with Brownstein meeting doctors and patients across the country and incorporating their stories into the book.

During his research, he met a construction worker, whose story was not included in the book, who suffered a sprained ankle before completely collapsing. “There is a connection between this injury and his paralysis.”

He explained some of Pappenheim’s own symptoms, such as cheek pain, a factor that can lead to various diagnoses.

“There is [also] “There may be a connection between the pain in her face and the onset of her illness,” which she was diagnosed with as hysteria in 1880, but which cannot be fully proven today, according to Brownstein.

Toward the end of the talk, Brownstein allowed time for questions and comments from the audience.

When asked about the mass hysteria during the Salem Witch Trials, Brownstein explained a counter-narrative to the event.

“There is speculation that the Salem witch trials were actually due to a fungus that grew on the corn that caused everyone to hallucinate,” Brownstein said.

Senior English major Kelly Mooney spoke to The Torch about the interesting new ideas in the “Bookmarks” series.

“You learn a lot about different types of literature and different genres that you may have never explored before, such as psychoanalysis and the stories behind it [when attending events like this]. It gives people a great opportunity to learn something new.”

“I’m looking forward to more bookmark series,” said English student Annie Yan. “In English courses or courses in general, you don’t come into contact with the professors outside of the classroom.”

The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim: The Woman Who Invented Freud’s Talking Cure is available for purchase at several stores and websites, including Barnes & Noble And Amazon.