Freud (Sleep and dreaming)
Freud (1909) Little Hans; analysis of a phobia in a five year old boy (textbook pg.242-244) “Understand the aims, procedures and findings (results and conclusions), strengths and weaknesses of”
Background: Freud believed in dreamwork – he believed that our themes can offer insight into our unconscious mind – our minds “hide” the unconscious thoughts through symbols etc. He believed dreams have both a manifest content (the main narrative) and a latent content (hidden deeper meaning). Freud hypothesised the Oedipus Complex – he believed that young children had unconscious desires towards their same-sex parent, and a jealously of their opposite-sex parent. He believed children have a fear that the opposite-sex parent will find out, and castrate them. He also put forward a theory called Psychosexual Development: where children pass through a series of developmental stages – one of these stages is called the phallic stage, which is between 3-6 years of age.
| A | Freud aimed to explain how children develop. He then aimed to explain the origin of the 5 year old boy’s phobia of horses (and make suggestions for treatments). |
| P | This was a case study of one boy named Hans, aged 3 at the beginning of the study. From 1906, Hans’ father recorded interactions with his child and reported them to Freud for analysis. A year into the case study, from 1907, Hans’ dreams were recorded. During the case study, Hans developed a fear of horses. If he saw one – he was scared it would fall down. He was also scared it would bite him. Freud analysed the information he received about Hans and analysed his dreams to try to reveal the contents of the unconscious mind to find the origin of the phobia. He searched for symbols and hidden themes within the dreams and Hans’ behaviour to uncover the latent content. |
| R | Hans’ phobia: Freud thought Hans’ specific fear of horses with black bits around the mouth could symbolise Hans’ father’s moustache. He believed the horse represented the father. Hans’ fear of the horse could represent Hans’ unconscious fear of his father (as the Oedipus complex suggests). Dream of Hans’ mother disappearing: Freud thought Hans’ dream of his mother disappearing symbolises his fear of his father taking his mother away (as the Oedipus complex suggests). Shortly after this dream – Hans was with his mother and they saw a horse. Freud thought Hans could be displacing his anxiety about losing his mother and being fearful of his dad onto the horse. Once Hans had resolved the Oedipus complex and passed through the phallic stage of development, his phobia of horses ended. |
| C | Freud concluded that Hans’ fear of horses was a result of the Oedipus complex, which he concluded occurs in the phallic stage of psychosexual development. Freud believed that the dreams he had helped to resolve the complex, and overcome his fear. |
Freud met with Hans in 1922 – Hans was a normal, healthy individual.
| G | (-) The sample was only one individual – other children may not go through the same Oedipus complex at the same age as Hans. |
| R | (+) Freud made lots of detailed notes of his analysis of Hans and his phobia – so another psychologist could repeat the analysis to check for consistency of conclusions. |
| A | (+) The results are useful as they have supported Freud’s theory about the psychosexual stages of development, Oedipus complex and dreamwork. |
| V | (+) Being a case study, Freud got a large amount of qualitative data, which was detailed and high in validity. For example, accounts of Hans’ dreams, conversations with his parents, etc. (-) Hans’ parents knew about Freud’s theories and ideas, so the information provided by Hans’ father may have been biased – he may have been subjective when telling Freud about Hans’ behaviours. |
| E | (-) Freud kept Hans’ identity confidential – Hans was not the child’s real name, it was Herbert Graf. |
Freud’s Study Key Term Glossary
| Oedipus Complex | The idea that children have an attraction towards their opposite sex parent and therefore a jealousy/resentment towards their same sex parent. This could lead to castration anxiety – fear the same sex parent will find out about their feelings and castrate them. |
| Psychosexual development | A series of stages suggested by Freud, explaining how children develop |
| Phallic stage | One of Freud’s psychosexual development stages, when a child is 3-6 and when the Oedipus complex occurs |
| Phobia | An intense fear of something that impacts your day to day life |
| Need more help? Want to stretch your understanding? |
| https://blogpsychology.wordpress.com/corestudies/developmental-psychology/analysis-of-a-phobia/ https://www.simplypsychology.org/little-hans.html https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/freud-1909 |
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