This is the first major analysis of Freud's five celebrated five case studies of Little Hans, Dora, the Rat Man, the Wolf Man and Schreber. O'Neill sets out the details of each case and critically engages with the narratives using a mixture of psychoanalytical insight and social theory. The book:

• Provides a clear and powerful account of the five major case studies that helped to establish the Freud legend.


• Situates the cases and the analysis into the appropriate social and historical contexts.


• Offers distinctive interpretations of the symptomatic body, of illness as a language, dream work and the Madonna complex.


• Challenges us to revisit the canonical texts of psychoanalysis.