Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy: Freud's Psychosexual Theory in Action

1. Key studyAnalysis of a phobia in a five-year-old boy Sigmund Freud

2. Aim This is an example of ‘Action research’ • One aim was to treat Hans’ horse phobia • A subsidiary aim was to record evidence to support Freud’s theory of psychosexual development including the ‘Oedipus Complex’

3. Background • Freud had a theory of psychosexual stages of child development: • oral 0–2 years • anal 2–3 years • phallic 3–6 years • latency 6–12 years • genital 12–18 years Freud suggests most of the mind in inaccessible ‘sub-conscious’ and this is where the psychodynamic conflicts occur

4. Aspects of the Phallic stage • unconscious conflicts and desires • primary erogenous zone is genital • unconscious desire for opposite-sex parent develops leading to hatred/jealousy of same-sex parent, leading to guilt and fear of retribution from the father.......leading to • castration fear ....................resulting eventually in ‘gender identification’ • i.e. the resolution of the conflict leads to adopting the behaviours of same-sex parent

5. Method • Case study • using interview (one) • using letters from father who asked Hans questions and noted down Hans’ conversations, dreams and behaviours.

6. Participant (fill in pack) • Little Hans was born in 1903. He was: • aged 3 when first reports made • aged 3½ when castration threat made • aged 3½ when sister Hannah born • aged 3¾ when had first dream • aged 4 when moved house • aged 4½ when visited Gmunden and Hans heard the warning about the biting horse • aged 4¾ when saw falling horse and developed phobia of horses • aged 5 at the end of analysis.

7. Procedure • Hans’s father and mother were devotees of Freud. • They agreed to bring up Hans with as little discipline as possible. • Hans developed into a cheerful boy. • Hans’s father wrote to Freud, sometimes reporting what had been said, or what Hans had done, sometimes putting his own interpretation on things. He asked Hans questions that he thought Freud would want him to ask, and also what Freud told him to ask. • Hans met Freud once during this case study for one interview.

8. Hans’s obsession (1) • Hans showed ‘lively’ interest in his penis (which he called his ‘widdler’). • He often touched his penis. • He asked if others, e.g. his mother has a ‘widdler’. • Looked at animals, tables, engines, and so on, for a ‘widdler’ and widdling. cont'd…

9. Hans’s obsession (2) • He was told that if he touched his penis, the doctor would come and cut it off. • When 4½, Hans was being bathed and asked his mother to touch his ‘widdler’. • Mother says it would be ‘priggish’. • Hans says ‘But its great fun’.

10. Hannah • When Hannah was seven days old, he watched her bath and noticed that she had a very small ‘widdler’. • Hans was jealous and at first didn’t want Hannah but after six months had got over his jealousy. • He fantasised about her being dropped in the bath – like lumpf in the toilet!

11. Continued… • When Hans is 4¾, he has a fear of baths. • Hans’s father suggests this is because Hans wants his mother to drop Hannah in bath and so, if frightened, she might do the same to him.

12. Hans’s friends • Hans was friends with lots of children, both girls and boys. (Freud said this was his first indication of homosexuality.) • The children of their landlord at the summer house in Gmunden were friends. • Hans wanted to sleep in the bed with them, which Freud interpreted as erotic desire, as Hans slept in parents bed, which is also erotic.

13. Hans’s phobia • Hans developed a fear that a horse will bite him in the street. • Hans had an anxiety dream that his mother had gone. • He said that he saw a white horse at Gmunden and his friend Lizzi was told ‘don’t put your finger to the white horse or it will bite you’.

14. Freud’s interpretation • Hans was repressing his desire to masturbate as his parents had told him not to, so this was causing anxiety at night-time. • Hans’s obsession with penises had lead to a fear of horses as they have big ones. • Hans associated being told not to ‘put his finger’ to his penis with the white horse biting and developed a castration complex.

15. Giraffe dream • Hans goes to his parents’ bed as he has had a bad dream: • The dream was of a little giraffe and a big giraffe. • The little giraffe crumpled and the big giraffe called out when Hans took the crumpled one. • Hans sat on the crumpled one. • Freud’s interpretation was that the little giraffe = mother’s genitals, big giraffe = father’s penis, sitting on = sex.

16. Hans meets Freud • Hans met Freud just once. • Hans said that he is particularly frightened of white horses with blinkers and black mouths. • Freud told Hans that he was afraid of his father (who had pale face, moustache and glasses) because Hans was so fond of his mother.

17. Improvement in Hans • After the meeting with Freud, Han’s phobia improves. • Hans admits he is • frightened his father will leave him, ‘Don’t trot away from me.’

18. Plumber fantasy • Hans’s ‘dreams’ that a plumber came and took his behind and penis away and replaced them with bigger ones. • Freud’s interpretation was that Hans’s castration complex is overcome and he now realises that he will not lose his penis, it will just get bigger.

19. Other points to consider • Hans’s obsession with ‘lumf’ (faeces) • Hans’s final fantasies of having children, being the daddy. Hans’ mother was his children’s • Mummy and his father was the ‘granddaddy’!

20. Other explanations • normal sibling jealousy of sister • saw a horse and cart fall over in the street and that this frightened him (behaviourist explanation)

21. Some issues • leading questions may have been used • parents’ obsession with Hans’s masturbation • Hans’s father subjective/biased account of information, which he passes to Freud

22. Conclusions • Hans was a ‘little Oedipus’ according to Freud. • Hans was at the phallic stage of development. • Unconsciously his fear of castration within the Oedipus conflict showed in his fear of horses. • By the age of five, with some help, Hans had overcome the Oedipus conflict and passed out of phallic stage. Issues with his father were resolved.