Freud

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  • Freud
    • Aim
      • To report the findings of the treatment of a 5 year old boy for his phobia of horses.
    • Background
      • Psychodynamic perspective - all behaviour can be explained by the inner conflicts of the unconscious mind.
    • Participants
      • Little Hans, a 5 year old boy.
    • Procedure
      • Case study, mainly carried out by Hans' father - knew and supported Freud. Father-son relationship enabled the study to be successful. Freud only met with Hans once.
      • Hans was always interested in his 'widdler' and wondered if all other things had one.
      • He was told at 4 years old that if he touched his penis, the doctor would come and cut it off.
    • Conclusions
      • Freud said Hans was a little Oedipus.
      • Hans was at the phallic stage of development.
      • Unconsciously, his fear of castration showed in his fear of horses.
      • By the age of five, Hans had overcome the Oedipus complex and passed through the Phallic stage.
    • Evaluation
      • Case studies give a large amount of qualitative data which is subjective to the researcher to analyse and interpret.
      • Focused on only one child - generalisation not possible.
      • Lots of leading questions were asked to Hans about his feelings.
    • Results
      • Freud said that Hans was repressing his desire to **********.
      • Hans associated being told to not put his finger on his penis with horse biting and developed a castration complex.
      • Plumber fantasy - plumber would come and take off his penis and bottom and replace them with bigger ones.(Castration complex is overcome & he realises that it will just get bigger).
      • Giraffe fantasy - Little giraffe  crumpled (mothers genitals) & big giraffe(fathers penis)  called out when Hans took the crumpled one and sat on it (sex).
      • He also had fantasies of him and his mother with their own children playing in the garden with Hans' father as the grandfather.

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