what are the psychosexual stages
oral stage in first year of life- mouth is main focus of pleasure at this stage eg. sucking and weaning and they are totally dependent on their carer
anal stage at 1-3 years old- child learns to retain and expel faeces
phallic stage at 3-5 years old- the boys go through the Oedipus complex which involved a strong attachment to the opposite sex parent and a sense of the same sex parent as a rival for the affection
aim
to give an account of a boy who was suffering from a phobia of horses and use this case to illustrate the existence of the oedipus complex
sample
1 participant, 5 year old jewish boy from vienna called little hans in the study but his real name was herbert graf and he was suffering from a phobia of horses
experimental design
clinical case study (patient undergoing therapy)
how was data collected
by han’s father who conducted regular discussions with hans and passed them onto freud who analysed them in line with his theory
history of hans fear of horses
at the age of 3 hans developed a great interest in his penis that he played with regularly making his mum cross and threatened to send for a doctor to cut it off if he didnt stop which made hans very disturbed and develop a fear of castration
at around the same time, hans saw a horse collapse and die in the street which upset him
shortly after when he was 4 hans developed a phobia of horses; specifically that a white horse would bite him
what did hans father note about his fear of horses
that it seemed to relate to their large penises that reminded him of his dissatisfaction with the size of his own penis
what happened at around the same time the phobia of horses devloped
a conflict between hans and his father developed where hans had been in habit of getting into his parents bed in the morning and cuddling his mother however his father began to object which made hans phobia of horses worsen to the point he would not leave the house and suffered anxiety attacks
what happened at the age of 5
hans’ phobia lessened, initially becoming limited to white horses with tick pieces of harness and blinkers in front of their eyes and then disspearing all together
how did the horse represent hans dad
blinkers in front of eyes= hans’ fathers moustache and glasses
how was the end of hans phobia marked?
by 2 fantasies
- hans fantasied he had several children and when his father asks who the mother was he replied ‘why mummy and you’re the granddaddy’
- hans fantasised that a plumber came and removed his bum and penis replacing them with new bigger ones
results
freud interpreted the case as an example of the oedipus complex
- the horses presented hans father
- the anxiety hans felt was really castration anxiety triggered by his mums threat to cut off his penis and the fear of his dad caused by banishing from the bed
- the children fantasy represents a resolution of the oedipus complex in which hans replaces his father as his mothers main love object but the father still has a role of a grandfather
- plumber fantasy is indeifaction with his father as hans can see himself growing a large penis
conclusions
hans suffered a phobia of horses because he was suffering from castration anxiety and going through the oedipus complex which he eventually resolved by fantasising himself taking on his fathers role
Ethical considerations
confidentiality- although freud used little hans as the same the boys real identity was well known in vienna as herbert graf therefore this may have caused him later problems as his identity is public knowledge to something as socially sensitive as the oedipus complex
validity
hans father was a fan of freuds work so its hard to know if this distorted his perception of the events he passed on to freud
reliability
clinical case studies cannot be replicated so we cant assess test retest reliability
ethocentrism
highly ethnocentric because freud looked and only a single child from a very particular cultural context and from this generalised the oedipus complex to the all boys in a wide range of cultures
