ANN AND ANNA O Fundraiser

WHO WAS THE MYSTERIOUS "ANNA O"; and WHAT DID FREUD HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

Hi, I'm Cheryl Paley and my play, ANN AND ANNA O will be going up in an Equity Staged Reading on April 14th, 4pm at The JCC of Manhattan's Goldman-Sonnenfeld Auditorium. The play was developed with and will be directed by Susan Einhorn. We are raising an additional $6,500 in order to adequately cover fees to actors, director and production staff.

THE STORY

Anna O was the first patient of psychoanalysis, and has been credited with creating the methodology, also known as "the talking cure," with her doctor, Josef Breuer. Breuer was also Sigmund Freud's mentor and many believe it was Freud, and not Breuer, who treated Anna O. In truth, Freud never even met her.

Anna O's true identity, revealed years after her death by Freud's biographer, was, in fact, Bertha Pappenheim, who became a world-renowned social worker and the founder of The League of Jewish Women. But in her 20s and 30s she was written off as "untreatable" "unmarriageable" and incapable of ever having a normal life.

The play, ANN AND ANNA O is based on two true stories: Ann Jackowitz, feminist writer and activist, studied Anna O for over 30 years in order to write her screenplay, The Case of Anna O. The play I have written is the parallel journey of writer and subject, with Ann in her study in 1981 imagining Anna, in Vienna, in 1881. As Ann strives to uncover the truth and illuminate Anna's inner life, she embarks on a journey of discovery of her own, as well.

WHY TELL THIS STORY NOW?

With antisemitism, attacks on LGBTQ rights and women's reproductive rights featured in the news cycles daily and reenergized as attack points for a growing, radicalized right wing "army", now more than ever the stories of two Jewish women who defied social norms and prevailed become even more poignant, their courage and tenacity a source of hope and inspiration.

Add Sigmund Freud, who insinuated himself into Anna's narrative and it becomes a particularly relevant story in this era where big egos create legacies of falsehoods masquerading as fact.

AN EXCERPT FROM ANN AND ANNA O:

From Act Two, Scene Five

Dr. Breuer, in a moment of weakness, pushes a boundary

Breuer: I... I cannot allow... I cannot allow myself to... Ach...

He grabs her clumsily and steps in to kiss her on the cheek. She takes a step backwards,slaps him in the face, and responds:

Anna: YOU? YOU do not allow! I DO. A lady does not allow herself to be allowed to do anything! And what, pray tell, do you believe you are allowing? Allowing yourself to continue to do what you have been doing, to feel what you have been feeling? Or perhaps you are allowing yourself to engage in a pretense in order to further your case? To heal me with your innuendo, all in the name of feeling. Why? Because... it is inconvenient for you. I am inconvenient for you, I know. But still you come to me, you see me, you touch me, you encourage me to speak, to feel so the symptoms go away. To solve the mystery. You speak an unspeakable language every moment we are in each other's presence, so surely you must also know that whatever this is between us is every bit as real as the sleep walking, the paralysis, the seizures... and the manipulation. Sad for you that the one symptom that will not go away by talking is... this. Us. All of it. The talking won't make this vanish.

QUOTES:

Bertha Pappehheim, on a woman's worth:

"This can already be seen in the different reception given a new citizen of the world. If the father or someone else asked what 'it' was after a successful birth, the answer might be either the satisfied report of a boy, or - with pronounced sympathy for the disappointment - 'Nothing, a girl,' or 'Only a girl.'"

Josef Breuer, 1895

"She was a patient whose life became known to me to an extent to which one person's life is seldom known to another. She had a thirst for knowledge, a penetrating intuition, but nothing beyond a high school education. She suffered from convulsions and hallucinations, yet in her lucid moments gave remakable descriptions of her insane fantasies."

Ann Jackowitz, from Between Women: Biographers, Novelists, Critics, Teachers and Artists Write about Their Work on Women:

"What I learned was this: My attraction to Anna O is not to the fragile victim but to the source from which Pappenheim evolved. Pappenheim denied, discarded and separated herself from her past. She threw away the "invalid" and focused on her strengths. I, who felt chained to my past, and others who felt similarly could draw from her experience."

"Through what has been a period of self-discovery and self-appraisal, Bertha Pappenheim has been a source of hope, triumph and strength, providing for me a raison d'etre. It is hard, even now, to let go. She wants to be heard and remembered."

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Cheryl Paley, playwright

For me, there was great good fortune in being gifted, by Ann's widow Barbara Taff, with the opportunity, and the hefty challenge of writing this play. It was a process of "uncovering," a "digging in," leading finally to shining a light on the love affair between writer and subject, the infinite connection of two remarkable women, similarly afflicted in so many ways and similarly gifted. And, as a result, I have found myself changed as well.

It is only through the ultimate goal of presenting this to audiences that I, myself, will be able to let go. I hope you will help us to do that.