The novel’s portrayals of women often reflect the patriarchal assumptions common to early psychoanalytic theory—women are either objects of male desire, like Bertha, or sources of guilt and repression, like Breuer’s wife, Mathilde. Are there any ways in which the novel challenges these stereotypes, presenting its women characters as having complex inner lives of their own?

How do Breuer’s theories of psychology impact the way he understands Nietzsche’s symptoms? How does Breuer’s background as a physician inform his understanding of the relationship between mind and body?

How does antisemitism influence the work that Freud and Breuer collaborate on in the novel?