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Freud 1909 Little Hans - Oedipus Complex (Background (Freud proposed…
Freud 1909 Little Hans - Oedipus Complex
Background
Freud proposed childhood could be seen as a series of psychosexual stages - each stage characterised by a fixation on the area of the body and relationship with parents
1 year - oral stage, mouth as the child is suckling they are dependent on the main carer and acquire the ability to accept nurture and have close relationships
1-3 - anal stage, child learn to retain and expel faeces at will parents exert control over behaviour by potty training so child acquires pattern of relating to authority
3-6 - phallic stag, boys go through Oedipus complex involves strong attachment to opposite sex parent and rivalry with same sex parent
AIM - to record a case of the Oedipus compex
Research method
Longitudinal and clinical (patient undergoing therapy) case study
Data was gathered by Hans' father who regularly observed and questioned Hans writing down what he found
He sent records to Freud who interpreted the information and replied with advice on how to proceed
Data was gathered from just beofre Hans was 3 until he was 5
Treatment lasted just 4 months when Hans was 5 years old, Freud only met Hans once for a short consultation
Sample
5 year old middle class boy from Vienna, Austria
Hans had developed a number of phobias
Hans' parents were amongst Freud's closest admirers, Freud has come into contact with his parents through work before
Case history
From around 3 year old Hans developed great interest in his penis and reportedly played with it regularly his mother got so cross she threatened to send for a doctor to cut it off - hans was very disturbed by this and developed a fear of castration
At 4 year old Hans developed a phobia of white horses at around the same time a conflict developed between him and his father as he has a habit of getting in his parents bed and cuddling his mother but his father objected to this
Freud likened his phobia of white horses with nosebands and blinkers to his fathers moustache and glasses
Fantasies
Giraffe fantasy - "in the night there was a big giraffe and a crumpled one, and the big one called out because I took the crumpled one away from it. Then it stopped calling out and I sat down on top of the crumpled one" - interpretation the big giraffe is his father or his big penis and the crumpled giraffe is his mother or her genital organ, Hans was seized in the night by longing for his mother and her genital organ so came into their bedroom
The parenting fantasy - Hans was playing with imaginary children and he explained to his father that he was the children's daddy and that he was their granddaddy - interpretation instead of getting his father out the way he made him the grandfather so that he could then marry his mother
Results
The anxiety hans felt was really cstration anxiety triggered by his mother's threat to cut off his penis and fear of his father caused by his banishing from their bed
The giraffes represent his parents, the large giraffe his parent objecting to hans and the crumpled giraffe his mother, the crumpling representing her genitals
The parenting fantasy represents a friendly resolution of the oedipus complex in which hans replaces his father but still gives him a role as grandfather
Conclusions
Hans suffered a phobia of horses because he was suffering from castration anxiety and going through the oedipus complex dreams and fantasies helped express this conflict and he resolved the Complex by fantasising himself taking on his father's role