Freud

Freud

1. Core Study

   • Aims
     • 1. To document the case of little Hans, 5 year old boy, who developed a phobia of horses in order to treat him.
     • 2. To provide supporting evidence for his Oedipus theory on childhood sexuality
     • Action Research
       • Undertaking research whilst attempting to treat a patient
   • Method
     • Design
       • Longitudinal Single Case Study, lasted 2 years
     • Participants
       • Little Hans (5 years old)
         • Phobia of horses
           • He was with family Maid and a horse pulling heavy load collapsed. Fear focused on horses and heavily loaded vehicles falling over, aka neurosis of horses, aka Equinophobia
             • Symptoms
               • Anxiety, Jealousy, Fear of being seperated from his mother and of being bit by horses
       • Father
         • A music critic (worked in Vienna)
           • Keen supporter of Freud (freudian) and believed in bring up Hans in a modern way (expressing himself)
       • Mother/Hanna
         • Spent summer alone with Mother due to fathers work and enjoyed being alone with her but when his father returned he experienced separation anxiety.
         • Hanna born when Hans was 3 1/2 years old
   • Procedure
     • Freud only met Hans on two occasions
     • Recording and direct information were undertaken by Han's father who he then discussed the case at length with Freud
       • Hans had long discussions with his father including conversations about Lumf, the birth of his sister, the colour of his mother's underwear and his liking for going into the toilet with his mother or maid
       • Asked leading questions
         • Father: When the horse fell down did you think of your daddy? Hans: Perhaps. Yes. It's possible
           • To help discover main root to fear

2. Case notes

   • Widdler
     • Interested with his widdler. He realised inanimate objects didn't have widdlers and that animals had big ones e.g. horses. Assumed both parents had big ones as they were fully grown.
   • Baby Hanna
     • Hanna was born when Hans was 3 1/2 years old and gave him further cause for separation between him and his mother
       • Had a death wish for Hanna, by his mum dropping her in the bath. Created a unconscious fear of baths as Hans thought his mother would equally also drop him in the bath
   • Lumf
     • Preoccupied with bowel movements and called poo "lumfs".
       • Hans father believed the lumf symbolised a laden cart (body full of faeces) and that the lumf represented his sister as babies are lumf like.
         • Therefore, Laden carts represent pregnancy, when the fall down lumf comes out aka giving birth. Horse falling represents fathers death and mother giving birth.
           • Fear of baths represented unconscious fear of being dropped and an unconscious understanding of where babies came from. Father said they were delivered by storks but he felt deceived.
   • Lodi
     • Imaginary friend that looked like a lumf.

3. Horse fear

   • Feared a white horse would bite him
     • Hans overheard a man saying "Don't put your finger to the white horse or it'll bite you"
       • Hans also asked his mother to but her finger on his widdler and she said it would not be proper
         • Hans thought his mother would leave him for doing something improper which created a sense of anxiety
           • Desire was a product of his Sexual Libido (sexual drive). Therefore he displaced his anxiety from his libido to the horses and therefore became afraid of horses.
   • Saw a horse pulling a bus fall down and kick its legs and Hans though it was dead
     • Hans secretly wished his dad would fall down dead
       • Made him feel guilty and increased his anxiety about the death wish
         • Freud believed the horse had a resemblance to Hans' father and thought it played another part in Hans' fear
           • Horse's white face represented Hans' father's pale complexion, the horse's blinkers represented Hans' father's glasses and the black around the horse's mouth represented his moustache
             • Hans also shouted to his father "Daddy don't trot away from me!" on the street

4. Fantasies

   • 3 main fantasies
     • Giraffes
       • Two giraffes, a big one and crumpled one and when Hans took the crumpled one away it made the big one cry out. Hans then sat down on the crumpled one
         • Hans' father realised this was a representation of what happened in the mornings
           • Hans was used to sleeping with mum while dad was away and when he returned his father didn't want him in the bed
             • Fantasy is about Hans taking away his mother (crumpled) causing his father to cry out (big one) and sat on her to claim her for himself.
         • Freud also wondered if the long neck of the big giraffe represented the large adult penis
     • The Plumber
       • "A plumber took away my behind with a pair of pliers and then gave me another, and then did the same with my widdler"
         • His father interpreted this as the fact they were replaced with bigger ones like his
           • Meant Hans' wanted to be with his father aka he is identifying with him
     • The Parenting Fantasy
       • Hans imagined him being the father to his mother's children and his father being the grandfather
         • His father was no longer a threat to Hans
           • Freud took this as final evidence that the Oedipus (ee-do-pus) conflict was the cause of Hans' problems
             • Freud believed that once Hans excepted his desires towards his mother his problems would be resolved as his fear of horses. Hans' disorder eventually came to an end with Freud's help.