Emma Eckstein

Emma Eckstein was a patient of Sigmund Freud who underwent disastrous nasal surgery prescribed by Freud. She came from a prominent socialist family and was active in the Viennese women's movement. When she was 27, she came to Freud seeking treatment for vague symptoms including stomach ailments and slight depression related to menstruation. Freud diagnosed Emma as suffering from a "nasal reflex neurosis" he claimed to have discovered, based on inspiration from a nasally-obsessed physician, Wilhelm Fliess. His theory linked this "neurosis" to excessive masturbation.

Freud got Fliess to remove the turbinate bone from her nose. After her nose had oozed blood and pus for many days, another surgeon found a mass of surgical gauze left in the wound. Its abrupt removal caused a near-fatal hemorrhage, with the bleeding continuing intermittently for months. Miss Eckstein's nasal passages were so damaged that the left side of her face began to cave in, leaving her disfigured. Freud initially attributed this damage to the surgery, but later decided that her injuries and bleeding "were hysterical in nature, the result of sexual longing" for himself.

The tragedy was turned into a stage play in 2001 by Paul Livingston. Review of "Emma's Nose"

Text of letter from Freud to Fliess on the aftermath of Emma Eckstein's surgery