Little Hans - Emily, Sian and Amelia

Freud’s case study of Little Hans (1909)

Aim: - To understand why Little Hans, a five year old boy 
who had a phobia of horses and how to treat the phobia. 

Method: - Freud used a case study, including dream analysis
 to research the case of Little Hans. Hans father was a
 follower of Freud’s work and the information came from 
him, and not little Hans himself. Freud had only met Hans 
twice and the information was collected by Hans mother 
and father documenting his development. To test Freud’s 
ideas Hans father would ask questions such as “When the 
horse fell did you think of daddy?” they would also ask about his dreams and fantasies.

Description of themes: - 

Little Hans often dreamt about his ‘widdler’ (his penis) and about wiping peoples bottoms, little Hans had denied an interest for his ‘widdler’ and said it was only in his dreams, this is evidence of repression as he is pushing his unwanted desires to his unconscious mind. Although when he was younger, his mother often told him off for playing with his ‘widdler’ and threatened little Hans that she would get the doctor to cut it off. 

Hans hated his father and wished for him to go away a lot
on business as he wanted his father dead, this was because 
he enjoyed being with his mothers attention. Hans was also 
jealous of his little sister, who was born when he was three
and a half. Hans father reported that Hans had a fear of 
falling under the water in the bath. Freud and his father 
came to the conclusion that when watching his mother 
bathe his sister, he wished she would let his sisters head
go under water. Hans agreed this was true but this could
have been because he was jealous of his sister because his
mother was giving all of her attention to the sister. His
jealousy of his sister was evidence of the same desire for
his mother. 

Hans was afraid that a white horse would bite him. This may have been because he overheard a father saying to his daughter that she should ‘put her finger on’ the white horse that was drawing the cart to take her to the station. He was also scared of black on horses’ mouths and things infront of their eyes. Hans fear of a white horse represented the fear of his father. The fear of black around the horses’ mouths and of things in front of their eyes represented adult men with moustaches and glasses on, explaining why he was afraid of his father. When the girl was told not to touch the horse, it reminded him of when his mother told him off for playing with his ‘widdler’, which Freud interpreted as castration fear. 

Hans was also told off for playing with dolls and ‘having children’. His father would say that boys can’t have children. Hans said mummy is the children’s mummy, Hans is their daddy and Han’s father is the grandfather. When Hans said this it showed that he was now cured because he had grown up and it was the resolution of the Oedipus Complex. 

Conclusion:- Freud that his study of Little Hans offered evidence for his psychosexual stages, and theory of how gender develops.

link to a video about Freud