Psychodynamic Studies in Detail
| a Describe and evaluate two studies in detail relating to Freud’s theory. One study must be Freud’s study of Little Hans (1909) and one other study. This must be selected from the following:
Axline V (1964/1990) Dibs: Personality Development in Play Therapy Bachrach et al (1991) Effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapies Cramer P (1997) Identity, personality and defence mechanisms |
Freud’s study of Little Hans (1909)
The aim of the case study was to report the findings of the treatment of a five-year-old boy for his phobia of horses.
Freud used a case study method to investigate Little Hans’ phobia. However the case study was actually carried out by the boy’s father who was a friend and supporter of Freud. Freud probably only met the boy once. The father reported to Freud via correspondence and Freud gave directions as how to deal with the situation based on his interpretations of the father’s reports.
Freud noted that it was the special relationship between Hans and his father that allowed the analysis to progress and for the discussions with the boy to be so detailed and so intimate. The first reports of Hans are when he was 3 years old.
The first reports of Hans are when he was 3 years old when he developed an active interest in his ‘widdler’ (penis), and also those of other people. For example on one occasion he asked ‘Mummy, have you got a widdler too?’ Throughout this time, the main theme of his fantasies and dreams was widdlers and widdling. When he was about three years and six months old his mother told him not to touch his widdler or else she would call the doctor to come and cut it off.
When Hans was almost 5, Hans’ father wrote to Freud explaining his concerns about Hans. He described the main problem as follows: ‘He is afraid a horse will bite him in the street, and this fear seems somehow connected with his having been frightened by a large penis’. The father went on to provide Freud with extensive details of conversations with Hans. Together, Freud and the father tried to understand what the boy was experiencing and undertook to resolve his phobia of horses.
Hans’ anxieties and phobia continued and he was afraid to go out of the house because of his phobia of horses. Hans told his father of a dream/fantasy which his father summarised as follows: ‘In the night there was a big giraffe in the room and a crumpled one: and the big one called out because I took the crumpled one away from it. Then it stopped calling out: and I sat down on top of the crumpled one’. Freud and the father interpreted the dream/fantasy as being a reworking of the morning exchanges in the parental bed. Hans enjoyed getting into his parents bed in a morning but his father often objected (the big giraffe calling out because he had taken the crumpled giraffe – mother – away). Both Freud and the father believed that the long neck of the giraffe was a symbol for the large adult penis. However Hans rejected this idea.
When Hans was taken to see Freud, he was asked about the horses he had a phobia of. Hans noted that he didn’t like horses with black bits around the mouth. Freud believed that the horse was a symbol for his father, and the black bits were a moustache. After the interview, the father recorded an exchange with Hans where the boy said ‘Daddy don’t trot away from me!’;
Hans’ became particularly frightened about horses falling over. He described to his father an incident where he witnessed this happening (later confirmed by his mother). Throughout this analysis the parents continued to record enormous examples of conversations and the father asked many leading questions to help the boy discover the root of his fear. For example:
Father: When the horse fell down did you think of your daddy?
Hans: Perhaps. Yes. It’s possible.
Hans’ fear of the horses started to decline and Freud believed that two final fantasies marked a change in Hans and lead to a resolution of his conflicts and anxieties.
Firstly, Hans had described a fantasy where he was married to his mother and was playing with his own children. In this fantasy he had promoted his father to the role of grandfather.
In the second fantasy, he described how a plumber came and first removed his bottom and widdler and then gave him another one of each, but larger.
At age 19 the not so Little Hans appeared at Freud’s consulting room having read his case history. Hans confirmed that he had suffered no troubles during adolescence and that he was fit and well. He could not remember the discussions with his father, and described how when he read his case history it ‘came to him as something unknown’
Freud believed that the findings from the case study of Little Hans supported his theories of child development.
In particular, the case study provided support for his theory of Oedipus Complex in which the young boy develops an intense sexual love for his mother and because of this, he sees his father as a rival and wants to get rid of him. Freud believed that much of Hans’ problem came from the conflict caused by this wish. The final fantasy of being married to his mother supported this idea.
According to Freud the cause of Little Hans’ phobia was related to his Oedipus complex. Little Hans’, it was argued, was afraid of horses because the horse was a symbol for his father. For example the black bits around the horses face reminded the boy of his father’s moustache, the blinkers reminded him of his fathers glasses and so on. Freud believed that as Little Hans was having sexual fantasies about his mother he feared his father’s retaliation. Little Hans therefore displaced his fear of his father onto horses who reminded him of his father.
Evaluation of Freud’s study of Little Hans
Axline V. (1964) Dibs: Personality Development in Play Therapy
This case study is about one of Axline’s genuine real life cases. Dibs was a 5 year old boy who couldn’t mix with the other children at school.
The aim was to unlock the deep rooted problem they thought must be underpinning Dibs’ behaviour, because most of the teachers thought Dibs was not lacking in intellect despite his refusal/inability to fully communicate.
Axline visited the school and observed Dibs. She worked with him in a playroom to observe his play and behaviour. She then met with Dibs’ mother, who agreed for Dibs to attend play therapy sessions once a week for an hour. She kept detailed records of all sessions with Dibs and discussions with his teachers and mother.
At the age of 5 Dibs was referred to Axline ( aclinical psychologist specialising in play therapy). Dibs was solitary and aggressive at school and would violently resist being taken home from school. Both parents were very successful (although his mother – a brain surgeon, gave up work when Dibs was born). They believed that Dibs was retarded or brain damaged although the adults who knew him at school suspected that his problems were emotional.
The therapy involved Dibs coming to Axline’s office and engaging in different play behaviours. In the first session he revealed that he could read by reading the labels on paints. Other sessions involved playing with a dolls house where he closed all the shutters and doors and drew a lock on the front door commenting; ‘a lock that locks tight with a key and high hard walls. And a door, a locked door’ (p42). Axline noted that Dibs was concerned with locked doors.
Dibs play reflected his home life, some of the comments he made seemed to echo his father’s attitudes towards him
When he played with finger paints he commented ‘Oh come away Dibs, it is a very silly kind of paint. Come away!’ (p44). When his father picked him up he was obviously embarrassed by Dibs and said ‘can’t you stop that senseless jabber?’ when Dibs tried to speak with him. His mother told Axline that when they got home the father had said that Dibs was ‘babbling like an idiot’ and Dibs attacked him and was then locked in his room.
The mother then confessed that Dibs birth had been unplanned and had ruined her career and angered her husband. He also said he was glad to come to therapy but sad to go home.
Dibs displaced the anger he had towards his father onto toy soldiers which he buried and repeatedly hit. This could be regarded as wish fulfilment within the Oedipus complex as he is effectively removing his father from the scene
Axline asked if he was able to take any of the ‘gladness’ from therapy to home he responded by burying toy soldiers in sand, he dug them up but said of one ‘this one is Papa’ and punched it to the ground repeatedly.
Dibs obtained mastery of his feelings and resolved his issues through acting them out and taking control during play
After this Dibs took down the locked front door of the dolls house and sang ‘I hate that lock and the people who shove you in. I hate the tears and the angry words and I’ll kill them all with my hatchet and hammer their bones and spit on them’ (p85).
Dibs feared his father but through fantasy play he seemed to resolve this e.g. in one session he told the story of the boy who went into his father’s study without knocking and said ‘you are a mean man and I hate you’ at which point he said the father began to cry asking the boy to forgive him and not hate him.
His behaviour at school improved throughout his therapy but he still had a lot of anger towards his father. Eventually his relationship with his father improved.
A week after the therapy finished his IQ was tested and found to be 168 (genius level). He no longer had any emotional difficulties.