What is the name of Freud's phobia case study?

Answer 1

little Hans

Little Hans was a 5-year-old boy with a phobia of horses. Like all clinical case studies, the primary aim was to treat the phobia.

Freud didn't actually work directly with little Hans, but instead worked through correspondence with Hans' father, who was familiar with Freud's theories, and wrote to him when he first suspected that Hans had become a case that Freud might be interested in. Freud suggested possible lines of questioning which the father could try with Hans, and the father tried them and reported to Freud what had taken place.

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 and a half years 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'.