Sigmund Freud - Analysis of a Phobia in a Five Year Old Boy

Sigmund Freud - Analysis of a Phobia in a Five Year Old Boy

1. Aim

   • To document the case of Little Hans whose anxiety led to a phobia
   • To support Freud's ideas on the origins of phobias and the fact they are influenced by unconscious forces
     • To support Freud's ideas on psychosexual stages of development and the Oedipus complex

2. Collection of data

   • Qualitative Data
     • Observations of Little Hans, conversations conducted by his father and sent via letters
     • An interview between Freud and Little Hans

3. Method

   • Participant
     • 5 year old boy called Hans
       • Austrian
   • Case study

4. Phobias

   • Castration
     • Feared his mother would have his widdler chopped off
   • Water
     • Wanted mother to drop sister
       • She could drop him
   • White horses
     • Father warned daughter about horse biting her
   • Horses pulling laden carts
     • Saw a horse fall down
     • Laden cart = Body full of lumf
     • Represented pregnant woman
       • Repressed anxiety about his sister
     • Horse kicking about - his behaviour when defacating

5. Dreams

   • Giraffe Dream
     • Hans took the crumpled giraffe away from the big one after a while the big one stopped calling out for it
   • Plumber Fantasy 1
     • Plumber unscrewed bath, stuck borer in his stomach
     • Plumber Fantasy 2
       • Plumber took away his behind, and widdler with pincers, replaced them with bigger ones
   • Parenting Fantasy
     • He was the father of his imaginary children with his mother, his father was the grandfather

6. Results and Conclusions

   • Final fantasy showed he had resolved feelings with his father
   • His fear of horses subsided
   • He decided Hans was going through the Oedipus Complex
     • Due to anxiety about his mother's desertion
   • Saw conversations with Hans as providing powerful support for his view that children have an interest in sexual matters from an early age
   • The real causes of the phobias lie in the hidden conflicts of the unconscious mind
   • Hans went through the psychosexual stages of development

7. Hans as a Little Oedipus

   • Saw his father as a rival for his mother's attention and affection
   • Castration anxiety - fear his father would find out about troubles
   • Wanted to be his father and wanted him gone
   • Fear of his mother deserting him
   • Oedipus Complex was resolved - Identified with his father in his final fantasy