Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Freud (1909): individual differences - Coggle Diagram
Freud (1909): individual differences
background
Freud believed in the existence of a sexual instinct and according to him, phobias are due to inner conflicts relating to the psychosexual stages of development. Freud believes sexual instinct is present at birth, satisfaction is found from the individual themselves.
aims
Little Hans' parents' aim was to use psychoanalysts to gain access to the boys repressed wishes and therefore overcome the nervous disorder he had developed.
the case of little Hans is an attempt to provide support for Freuds theory of psychosexual stages of development
method
case study- a detailed account of one person
sample
little Hans born April 1903 lives in Australia
sampling method
Freud was good friends with his parents and they chose little Hans to investigate further
procedure
Little Hans' father would send written reports to Freud of conversations between little Hans and himself. Freud would write back with suggestions/ alternate interpretations of Hans' dreams. On 30th March 1908, Freud met little Hans for the first time and only time. Hans would often wonder what the professor would make of his 'nonsense'.
1906- just before Hans was 3 he started to play with his 'widdler'- he played with it regularly and his mother became cross and threatened to send him to a doctor to have it cut off this led to a fear of castration- which meant he had to repress his feelings of pleasure.
he started to notice that animals had big ones (horses) and assumed his parents must have big ones
during summer Hans spent lots of time with his mother while his father was at work, when his father returned he took his mothers attention away- Hans saw his father as a rival for his mothers attention.
at age 3,5 his sister was born, further separating him from his mother- he often hoped his mother would drown his sister Hanna in the bath. this led him to believe his mother would also let him go in the bath.
at age 4.5 Hans developed a fear of horses, specifically that a white horse would bite him as he heard a man telling his daughter not to touch a horse. Hans' father noted to Freud that his fear seemed to relate to the size of the horses penis and his dissatisfaction with the size of his own penis.
at around the same time, his phobia developed, a conflict also developed with his father over Hans climbing into his parents bed in the morning to cuddle his mother. his father objected to this.
Hans had a dream about 2 giraffes, one cried out to the other. The one crying out was bigger because Hans had taken away the crumpled giraffe, hans then sat on the crumpled giraffe.
1 more item...
results
horses represented hans father
horses made good father figures because they had large penises
hans had castration anxiety
the children fantasy represented a friendly resolution of the Oedipus complex in which he replaces his father as his mothers main love object, but the father still plays a role.
conclusion
'little hans' story was that of a 'little Oedipus who wanted rid of his father so he could be alone with his mother and sleep with her.' Little hans did resolve his orpidus complex in a happy way.