Freud and the case of Little Hans

The case of Little Hans, told by Freud in Analysis of the phobia of a five-year-old boy (Child's Soul), gives a completely credible illustration of the course of the Oedipus and Castration Complex in the boy. Hans is the son of Freud's close friend. His parents have accepted Freud's ideas for psychoanalysis and the child is educated as they seem to fit them according to psychoanalysis. This is mostly a "supervised" child, as Freud himself has told his friends to find in his development any confirmation of his theory of childhood sexuality. Little Hans's treatment will not bring anything new to the theoretical level. But so Freud verifies his hypotheses he has suggested by starting with the treatment of adults.

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This is the case with the treatment of children, which is one of the most developed and successful units of psychoanalysis. However, this is a special cure because the treatment will be led by the father according to Freud's instructions, which will not be tolerated, because it is the family that is at the root of these child psychological problems. Hans's father scrupulously tells Freud everything that Hans says. Hans himself will see Freud only once and this will be the most decisive moment in healing. Hans is a boy whose mother loves him very much. She leads him everywhere, she sleeps in her bed, she gets dressed and undressed in front of him, she even follows her in the toilet. Mother and son therefore form an imaginary couple. Freud's article begins with the following observation of Hans (according to his father's stories): Hans tensely watched her mother during her stripping. She asks him what she looks so staring at. He answers: Hans: I only see if you have what the pi-pi does, Wiwimacher, a scrub? Mother: Of course. Do not you know that?
Hans: I did not think that after you were big, your scarf was as big as the horse. " The mother's answer already identifies some of the difficulties Hans will have to deal with. To them is also the threat of castration, spoken by the mother, when she catches Hans to touch her face. Freud notes on this occasion that the desire for knowledge seems inseparable from sexual curiosity. In Hans's life, another event occurs when he is 31/2 years old: the birth of sister Anna. This creates jealousy in him.

He then began to create strong theories explaining her birth, as well as the difference between the sexes, that is, the absence of a penis she observed with her. At the age of 5 he suffers from phobia. It concerns the horses, the fear of being bitten by a horse on the street. The phobia, especially after the meeting with Freud, will become more complex, but will gradually improve. The fear of biting will become a fear of the horse not falling, and it is precisely when it is loaded and loaded. This is a phobia that expands under the sign of the means of transport. What remarkably shows the case of Little Hans is the way of building the Oedipus complex and the central role of the castration complex. First, Hans asks his mother to see if she has a phallus. He turns the phallus into the focus of his mother's desire. This is the game of deception, where he identifies himself with both the phallus that is missing from the mother and which he possesses, as well as with the mother who imagines it continues to wear it. He seeks to satisfy her in some way, and to some extent it is this substitute for the metallurgy of the phallus. We will see very soon that precisely at this level the attitude of the fetishist with his subject is situated.