PATHOS

Cassandra: A Case Study of Hysteria? (4/5) – The Field of Sexual Experience

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:27:42 +0000

Trauma, Affect, Body—these are the concepts we have examined so far. Our journey—and this series—will conclude where it all began; with the myth of Cassandra. Yet, we will not examine the traumatic violation within Athena’s temple; instead, we will look at the myth of the unheeded prophetess itself. This requires a deep dive into her...

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Cassandra: A Case Study of Hysteria? (3/5) – The Body

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 15:20:20 +0000

Cassandra appears—dancing, singing, frantic. Her body does no longer seem to belong to her; she moves like a possessed being. In his Studies, Freud describes how a strangulated affect takes possession of the body, converting psychic pain into somatic pain. But do these symptoms truly exist in the Trojan Women? Furthermore, how do we deal...

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Cassandra: A Case Study of Hysteria? (2/5) – The Strangulated Affect

Wed, 27 May 2026 22:34:22 +0000

In the first part of this series, we identified an event in Cassandra’s past that can undoubtedly be termed a “psychic trauma,” as it is actively reproduced within the tragedy. In this post, we turn our attention to another core component of hysteria: unexpressed affect. The Adequate Reaction The affect constitutes the focal point of...

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Cassandra: A Case Study of Hysteria? (1/5) – Trauma

Sun, 24 May 2026 14:14:00 +0000

In the introductory post, I highlighted the distinct characteristics of Cassandra’s appearance in The Trojan Women. Now, I will examine whether this appearance reflects the mechanisms of Freudian hysteria. The first step: the traumatic experience. Basic Research From a modern perspective, I am deeply indebted to Freud, as he provided a definition of trauma relatively...

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Why is Cassandra dancing?

Sun, 17 May 2026 18:02:34 +0000

“My mad daughter Cassandra is coming here on the run” – with these words, Hecuba announces Cassandra’s entrance in The Trojan Women. Much can be said and written about this striking scene. To approach it from a psychoanalytic perspective, the first question we must ask is: What makes this appearance so extraordinary? A Tragedy without...

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