A Physicalist Reconstruction of a Theory: The Case of the Freudian Theory of Hysteria

Dora, an 18-years young girl, goes with her father to Freud's clinic, on account of several close to disabling signs and symptoms: “tussi nervosa”, aphonia, appendicitis attacks, etc. that Freud diagnoses as hysteria. During the treatment, he discovers that Dora has full knowledge of human sexuality, even of so-called perversions. She is in love with Mr. K, with Mrs. K, probably with her own father, she has intense relationships with other females, and she dreams with houses that catch fire. While retelling their interviews, Freud builds his psychoanalytical conception of hysteria. From that material –and following the distinctions of the structuralistic conceptionI extract its components and fundamental laws, using them to describe Dora and the other cases of hysteria that resemble this paradigmatic case. This reconstruction of the Freudian theory of hysteria is carried without using -or starting withthe description of abstract mathematical structures, as usually happens in structuralism. Briefly, it is a reconstruction of the applications of the theory that complies with all the usual requirements of a structural analysis. In this way I solve some ontological tensions of this conception, showing that it can be developed with an ontological and epistemological monism proper of a physicalistic and nominalistic approach.