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'''Emma Eckstein''' ([[1865]] - [[1924]]) was an early [[patient ]] of [[Sigmund Freud]] who underwent disastrous nasal surgery, undertaken by [[Freud]]'s friend and confidant, [[Wilhelm Fliess]]. She came from a prominent socialist [[family ]] and was [[active ]] in the [[Vienna|Viennese]] [[women's movement]].

When she was 27, she came to Freud seeking [[treatment ]] for vague [[symptoms ]] including [[stomach]] ailments and slight [[Clinical depression|depression]] related to [[menstruation]]. Freud diagnosed Eckstein as [[suffering ]] from [[trauma]], secondary to [[childhood ]] [[sexual ]] abuse. Freud suspected, in addition, a "nasal reflex [[neurosis]]," a condition popularized by [[Fliess]], an ear, nose and throat specialist. Fliess had been treating the nasal reflex neurosis in his own [[patients ]] with local anesthesia, specifically [[cocaine]], and found that the treatment yielded positive results, in that his patients became less depressed. Fliess conjectured that if temporary cauterization was temporarily useful, perhaps surgery would yield more permanent results. He began operating on the noses of patients he diagnosed with the disorder, including Eckstein and even Freud himself.

Eckstein's surgery was a disaster. She suffered from terrible infections for some [[time]], and profuse bleeding. Freud called in a specialist who removed a mass of surgical gauze that Fleiss had not removed. Eckstein's nasal passages were so damaged that she was [[left ]] permanently disfigured. Freud initially attributed this damage to the surgery, but later, as an attempt to reassure his friend that he shouldn't blame himself, Freud reiterated his [[belief ]] that the initial nasal symptoms had been due to [[hysteria]]. The incident provided source [[material ]] for Freud's [[dream ]] of "[[Irma's injection]]".