Breuer, after seeing Anna for her mysterious hallucinations, elusive paralysis, and overall "hysteria," realized that in the evenings Anna would fall into a "quiet trance," mumbling words to herself (p. 27). When Breuer repeated the words she uttered back to her, Anna would divulge the imagery and content of her hallucinations. When she emerged from that trance state, she would feel better. Breuer noted also that when Anna did not describe the hallucinations in this manner that she would experience "extreme anxiety" for the rest of the night (p. 28). Anna dubbed this method the "talking cure," and the talking cure would become the basis for Breuer's cathartic method.

             Yet although the talking cure helped Anna feel better, she continued to exhibit new symptoms such as hydrophobia. One evening during a trance state, Anna recalled an event that occurred in her past, a specific memory that had first triggered her hydrophobia. It was the recollection of this memory that helped Anna to release the symptom. Breuer noted that the symptom would emerge "with greatest force" while it was being talked away, but that the cathartic method removed the symptom entirely (p. 30).

             However, another problem emerged. Anna became "deeply dependent" on Breuer and began to sexually fantasize about him (p. 32). While the cathartic method was effective in eliminating the symptoms, and tracing them back to an original memory, the treatment led to sexual dependence on the therapist. Breuer quit seeing Anna when this occurred. Freud told Charcot about the case but he "wasn't impressed," (p. 33). At Charcot's disapproval, Freud did not use the cathartic method until 1889, when he realized that her sexual feelings and emotional dependence might lead to yet a deeper root of Anna's problems.

             Freud therefore viewed Charcot's abandonment of Anna as initially wise but later, felt that Charcot was ignoring a primary symptom, something that could help release Anna's symptoms.