Abstract
Objective: To review the case of Anna O in light of perspectives offered by Dr Kaplan in his paper ‘O Anna: being Bertha Pappenheim — historiography and biography’ and to compare it with a contemporary case, that of Hanna Q.
Conclusions: Josef Breuer's initial diagnoses do not need revision. However, the aetiology of such diagnoses is informed by subsequent research and by comparison with contemporary cases that can quite closely resemble that of Anna O's. Her symptomatology was not unique.