The first documented psychoanalytic patient was Anna O., a patient of Josef Breuer made famous in the writing of Sigmund Freud.

The pseudonymous Anna O was later outed as the real-life Viennese Jewish feminist social worker and activist Bertha Pappenheim (1859–1936), who became a source of fascination and inspiration to the late Ann Jackowitz, a community activist herself, who wrote a richly detailed essay about Anna O while researching her life for a possible film. Jackowitz died in 2019, but her essay is now available to read or download at annjackowitz.wixsite.com/website