This book provides a historical analysis of one of Sigmund Freud-s least-studied cases, published in 1920 as The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman.
Scholars of sexuality often focus on Freud-s writings on male homosexuality, disregarding his views on homosexual women. This book serves as a corrective, renewing and reinvigorating interest in Freud, and demonstrating that his views on sexuality are as relevant today as ever. Part I introduces the case and explores Freud-s attitudes towards lesbianism, radical among his medical colleagues in the early twentieth century. It also puts Margarethe Csonka, the patient, at its centre. Michal Shapira considers Freud-s only treatment of a "female homosexual" and assesses Csonka-s background life before and after the encounter. Part II expands the case beyond the scientific-medical purview of the times and looks at the new opportunities afforded to women and assimilated Jews through growing equality and the modern
