Freud - Complete Works (349 page)

   ‘
He
:
"No."

   ‘
I
: "But
he’s got a very pretty little girl." - Upon which he
willingly and gladly consented.

   ‘Sunday, March 22nd. With a
view to extending the Sunday programme, I proposed to Hans that we
should go first to Schönbrunn, and only go on from there to
Lainz at midday. He had, therefore, to make his way not only from
our house to the Hauptzollamt station on the Stadtbahn, but also
from the Hietzing station to Schönbrunn, and again from there
to the Hietzing steam tramway station. And he managed all this,
looking hurriedly away whenever any horses came along, for he was
evidently feeling nervous. In looking away he was following a piece
of advice given him by his mother.

   ‘At Schönbrunn he
showed signs of fear at animals which on other occasions he had
looked at without any alarm. Thus he absolutely refused to go into
the house in which the
giraffe
is kept, nor would he visit
the elephant, which used formerly to amuse him a great deal. He was
afraid of all the large animals, whereas he was very much
entertained by the small ones. Among the birds, he was also afraid
of the pelican this time - which had never happened before -
evidently because of its size again.

   ‘I therefore said to him:
"Do you know why you’re afraid of big animals? Big
animals have big widdlers, and you’re really afraid of big
widdlers."

   ‘
Hans
: "But
I’ve never seen the big animals’ widdlers
yet."¹

   ‘
I
: "But you
have
seen a horse’s, and a horse is a big
animal."

   ‘
Hans
: "Oh, a
horse’s often. Once at Gmunden when the cart was standing at
the door, and once in front of the Head Customs House."

   ‘
I
: "When you
were small, you most likely went into a stable at
Gmunden . . ."

   ‘
Hans
(interrupting): "Yes, I went into the stable every day at
Gmunden when the horses had come home."

   ‘
I
:
". . . and you were most likely frightened when
you saw the horse’s big widdler one time. But there’s
no need for you to be frightened of it. Big animals have big
widdlers, and little animals have little widdlers."

   ‘
Hans
: "And
every one has a widdler. And my widdler will get bigger as I get
bigger; it’s fixed in, of course."

   ‘Here the talk came to an
end. During the next few days it seemed as though his fears had
again somewhat increased. He hardly ventured out of the front door,
to which he was taken after luncheon.’

  
¹
This was untrue. See his exclamation in
front of the lions’ cage on
p. 2005
. It was probably the beginning
of amnesia resulting from repression.

Analysis Of A Phobia In A Five-Year-Old Boy

2025

   Hans’s last words of
comfort throw a light upon the situation and allow us to make some
small corrections in his father’s assertions. It is true that
he was afraid of big animals because he was obliged to think of
their big widdlers; but it cannot really be said that he was afraid
of big widdlers themselves. Formerly the idea of them had been
decidedly pleasurable to him, and he used to make every effort to
get a glimpse of one. Since that time this enjoyment had been
spoiled for him, owing to the general reversal of pleasure into
unpleasure which had come over the whole of his sexual researches -
in a way which has not yet been explained - and also owing to
something which is clearer to us, namely, to certain experiences
and reflections which had led to distressing conclusions. We may
infer from his self-consolatory words (‘my widdler will get
bigger as I get bigger’) that during his observations he had
constantly been making comparisons, and that he had remained
extremely dissatisfied with the size of his own widdler. Big
animals reminded him of his defect, and were for that reason
disagreeable to him. But since the whole train of thought was
probably incapable of becoming clearly conscious, this distressing
feeling, too, was transformed into anxiety, so that his present
anxiety was erected both upon his former pleasure and his present
unpleasure. When once a state of anxiety establishes itself, the
anxiety swallows up all other feelings; with the progress of
repression, and the more those ideas which are charged with affect
and which have been conscious move down into the unconscious, all
affects are capable of being changed into anxiety.

   Hans’s singular remark,
‘it’s fixed in, of course’, makes it possible to
guess many things in connection with his consolatory speech which
he could not express in words and did not express during the course
of the analysis. I shall bridge the gap for a little distance by
means of my experiences in the analyses of grown-up people; but I
hope the interpolation will not be considered arbitrary or
capricious. ‘It’s fixed in, of course’: if the
motives of the thought were solace and defiance, we are reminded of
his mother’s old threat that she should have his widdler cut
off if he went on playing with it. At the time it was made, when he
was three and a half, this threat had no effect. He calmly replied
that then he should widdle with his bottom. It would be the most
completely typical procedure if the threat of castration were to
have a
deferred
effect, and if he were now, a year and a
quarter later, oppressed by the fear of having to lose this
precious piece of his ego. In other cases of illness we can observe
a similar deferred operation of commands and threats made in
childhood, where the interval covers as many decades or more. I
even know cases in which a ‘deferred obedience’ under
the influence of repression has had a principal share in
determining the symptoms of the disease.

Analysis Of A Phobia In A Five-Year-Old Boy

2026

   The piece of enlightenment which
Hans had been given a short time before to the effect that women
really do not possess a widdler was bound to have had a shattering
effect upon his self-confidence and to have aroused his castration
complex. For this reason he resisted the information, and for this
reason it had no therapeutic results. Could it be that living
beings really did exist which did not possess widdlers? If so, it
would no longer be so incredible that they could take his own
widdler away, and, as it were, make him into a woman!¹

  
¹
I cannot interrupt the discussion so far as
to demonstrate the typical character of the unconscious train of
thought which I think there is here reason for attributing to
little Hans. The castration complex is the deepest unconscious root
of anti-semitism; for even in the nursery little boys hear that a
Jew has something cut off his penis - a piece of his penis, they
think - and this gives them a right to despise Jews. And there is
no stronger unconscious root for the sense of superiority over
women. Weininger (the young philosopher who, highly gifted but
sexually deranged, committed suicide after producing his remarkable
book,
Geschlecht und Charakter
), in a chapter that attracted
much attention, treated Jews and women with equal hostility and
overwhelmed them with the same insults. Being a neurotic, Weininger
was completely under the sway of his infantile complexes; and from
that standpoint what is common to Jews and women is their relation
to the castration complex.

Analysis Of A Phobia In A Five-Year-Old Boy

2027

   ‘During the night of
27th-28th Hans surprised us by getting out of bed while it was
quite dark and coming into our bed. His room is separated from our
bedroom by another small room. We asked him why: whether he had
been afraid, perhaps. "No," he said; "I’II
tell you to-morrow." He went to sleep in our bed and was then
carried back to his own.

   ‘Next day I questioned him
closely to discover why he had come in to us during the night; and
after some reluctance the following dialogue took place, which I
immediately took down in shorthand:

   ‘
He
: "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 then I sat on top of the
crumpled one."

   ‘
I
(puzzled):
"What? A crumpled giraffe? How was that?"

   ‘
He
:
"Yes." (He quickly fetched a piece of paper, crumpled it
up, and said:) "It was crumpled like that."

   ‘
I
: "And you
sat down on top of the crumpled giraffe? How?"

   ‘He again showed me, by
sitting down on the ground.

   ‘
I
: "Why did
you come into our room?"

   ‘
He
: "I
don’t know myself."

   ‘
I
: "Were you
afraid?"

   ‘
He
: "No. Of
course not."

   ‘
I
: "Did you
dream about the giraffe?"

   ‘
He
: "No. I
didn’t dream. I thought it. I thought it all. I’d woken
up earlier."

   ‘
I
: "What can
it mean: a crumpled giraffe? You know you can’t squash a
giraffe together like a piece of paper."

   ‘
He
: "Of course
I know. I just thought it. Of course there aren’t any really
and truly.¹ The crumpled one was all lying on the floor, and I
took it away - took hold of it with my hands."

  
I
: "What? Can you
take hold of a big giraffe like that with your hands?"

   ‘
He
: "I took
hold of the crumpled one with my hand."

   ‘
I
: "Where was
the big one meanwhile?"

   ‘
He
: "The big
one just stood farther off."

   ‘
I
: "What did
you do with the crumpled one?"

   ‘
He
: "I held it
in my hand for a bit, till the big one had stopped calling out. And
when the big one had stopped calling out, I sat down on top of
it."

  
¹
In is own language Hans was saying quite
definitely that it was a phantasy.

Analysis Of A Phobia In A Five-Year-Old Boy

2028

   ‘
I
: "Why did
the big one call out?"

   ‘
He
: "Because
I’d taken away the little one from it." (He noticed that
I was taking everything down, and asked:) "Why are you writing
that down?"

   ‘
I
: "Because I
shall send it to a Professor, who can take away your
‘nonsense’ for you."

   ‘
He
: "Oho! So
you’ve written down as well that Mummy took off her chemise,
and you’ll give that to the Professor too."

   ‘
I
: "Yes. But
he won’t understand how you can think that a giraffe can be
crumpled up."

   ‘
He
: ‘Just
tell him I don’t know myself, and then he won’t ask.
But if he asks what the crumpled giraffe is, then he can write to
us, and we can write back, or let’s write at once that I
don’t know myself."

   ‘
I
: "But why
did you come in in the night?"

   ‘
He
: "I
don’t know."

   ‘
I
: "Just tell
me quickly what you’re thinking of."

   ‘
He
(jokingly):
"Of raspberry syrup."

   ‘
I
: "What
else?"                                 
              }
His wishes.

   ‘
He
: "A gun for
shooting people dead with."¹

   ‘
I
:
"You’re sure you didn’t dream it?"

   ‘
He
: "Quite
sure; no, I’m quite certain of it."

   ‘He proceeded: "Mummy
begged me so long to tell her why I came in in the night. But I
didn’t want to say, because I felt ashamed with Mummy at
first."

   ‘
I
:
"Why?"

   ‘
He
: "I
didn’t know."

   ‘My wife had in fact
examined him all the morning, till he had told her the giraffe
story.’

  
¹
At this point his father in his perplexity
was trying to practise the classical technique of psycho-analysis.
This did not lead to much; but the result, such as it was, can be
given a meaning in the light of later disclosures.

Analysis Of A Phobia In A Five-Year-Old Boy

2029

   That same day his father
discovered the solution of the giraffe phantasy.

   ‘The big giraffe is myself,
or rather my big penis (the long neck), and the crumpled giraffe is
my wife, or rather her genital organ. It is therefore the result of
the enlightenment he has had.

   ‘Giraffe: see the
expedition to Schönbrunn. Moreover, he has a picture of a
giraffe and an elephant hanging over his bed.

   ‘The whole thing is a
reproduction of a scene which has been gone through almost every
morning for the last few days. Hans always comes in to us in the
early morning, and my wife cannot resist taking him into bed with
her for a few minutes. Thereupon I always begin to warn her not to
take him into bed with her ("the big one called out because
I’d taken the crumpled one away from it"); and she
answers now and then, rather irritated, no doubt, that it’s
all nonsense, that after all one minute is of no importance, and so
on. Then Hans stays with her a little while. ("Then the big
giraffe stopped calling out; and there I sat down on top of the
crumpled one.")

   ‘Thus the solution of this
matrimonial scene transposed into giraffe life is this: he was
seized in the night with a longing for his mother, for her
caresses, for her genital organ, and came into our bedroom for that
reason. The whole thing is a continuation of his fear of
horses.’