Hysterical Girl

Distributed by Grasshopper Film, 12 East 32nd St., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10016Produced by Kate Novack and Andrew RossiDirected by Kate Novack2020, Streaming, 13 mins This brilliant and watchable film juxtaposes Freud's famous case study of Dora, “the hysterical girl,” to present-day sexual harassment and oppression. The film uses Freud's own words, read by an actor, and archival footage of Freud and Vienna ca. 1900 to give us his male-centric perspective on the client he called Dora. Dora was brought to Freud by her parents after she expressed a desire to die. She told Freud she had been sexually stalked by Hans, a friend of her father, since age 13. When she revealed this to her family, they turned on her and claimed she was lying, which led her to consider suicide. After listening to her version of events, Freud dismissed her claims as a mere fantasy drawn from her own sexually repressed desires to be with the "handsome" older man. Freud claimed that since the older man had given her a jewel box, a euphemism for female genitalia, she now had a desire to give her jewel box to him! Freud used her denials and expression of disgust as more evidence of her sexual repression. In the deft hands of Kate Novack, the director, the film blends Freud's comments with a reimagined Dora, played by a contemporary actor who gives us her true story. Dora's history is reviewed between film footage of women from Anita Hill to Dr. Blasey Ford, who speak of harassment at the hands of powerful men. Meanwhile, Freud's claim that Dora is a hysteric and a liar is tied to film clips of men such as Rush Limbaugh, Senator Alan Simpson, and others who dismiss women in the same vein that Freud dismissed Dora. The lie of this is given by showing footage of Clarence Thomas, Bill Cosby, Matt Lauer, Jeffrey Epstein, and Harvey Weinstein. In less than 15 minutes, the filmmaker does something so original and powerful that it will undoubtedly lead to deep classroom discussion in classrooms from high school to college. Nominated for 2021 Academy Award