Freud - Complete Works (350 page)

   I have only this to add to his
father’s penetrating interpretation. The
‘
sitting
down on top of’ was probably
Hans’s representation of taking
possession
. But the
whole thing was a phantasy of defiance connected with his
satisfaction at the triumph over his father’s resistance.
‘Call out as much as you like! But Mummy takes me into bed
all the same, and Mummy belongs to me!’ It is therefore
justifiable, as his father suspected, to divine behind the phantasy
a fear that his mother did not like him, because his widdler was
not comparable to his father’s.

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

2030

   Next morning his father was able
to get his interpretation confirmed.

   ‘On Sunday, March 29th, I
went with Hans to Lainz. I jokingly took leave of my wife at the
door with the words: "Good-bye, big giraffe!" "Why
giraffe?" asked Hans. "Mummy’s the big
giraffe," I replied; to which Hans rejoined: "Oh yes! And
Hanna’s the crumpled giraffe, isn’t she?"

   ‘In the train I explained
the giraffe phantasy to him, upon which he said: "Yes,
that’s right." And when I said to him that I was the big
giraffe, and that its long neck had reminded him of a widdler, he
said: "Mummy has a neck like a giraffe, too. I saw, when she
was washing her white neck."¹

   ‘On Monday, March 30th, in
the morning, Hans came to me and said: "I say! I thought two
things this morning!" "What was the first?" "I
was with you at Schönbrunn where the sheep are; and then we
crawled through under the ropes, and then we told the policeman at
the end of the garden, and he grabbed hold of us." He had
forgotten the second thing.

   ‘I can add the following
comment on this. When we wanted to visit the sheep on Sunday, we
found that a space in the gardens was shut off by a rope, so that
we were unable to get to them. Hans was very much astonished that
the space should be shut off only with a rope, which it would be
quite easy to slip under. I told him that respectable people
didn’t crawl under the rope. He said it would be quite easy;
whereupon I replied that a policeman might come along and take one
off. There is a lifeguardsman on duty at the entrance of
Schönbrunn; and I once told Hans that he arrested naughty
children.

   ‘After we returned from our
visit to you, which took place the same day, Hans confessed to yet
another little bit of craving to do something forbidden: "I
say, I thought something this morning again."
"What?" "I went with you in the train, and we
smashed a window and the policeman took us off with
him."'

   A most suitable continuation of
the giraffe phantasy. He had a suspicion that to take possession of
his mother was forbidden; he had come up against the barrier
against incest. But he regarded it as forbidden
in itself
.
His father was with him each time in the forbidden exploits which
he carried out in his imagination, and was locked up with him. His
father, he thought, also did that enigmatic forbidden something
with his mother which he replaced by an act of violence such as
smashing a window-pane or forcing a way into an enclosed space.

  
¹
Hans only confirmed the interpretation of
the two giraffes as his father and mother, and not the sexual
symbolism, according to which the giraffe itself represented the
penis. This symbolism was probably correct, but we really cannot
ask more of Hans.

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

2031

   That afternoon the father and son
visited me during my consulting hours. I already knew the funny
little fellow, and with all his self-assurance he was yet so
amiable that I had always been glad to see him. I do not know
whether he remembered me, but he behaved irreproachably and like a
perfectly reasonable member of human society. The consultation was
a short one. His father opened it by remarking that, in spite of
all the pieces of enlightenment we had given Hans, his fear of
horses had not yet diminished. We were also forced to confess that
the connections between the horses he was afraid of and the
affectionate feelings towards his mother which had been revealed
were by no means abundant. Certain details which I now learnt - to
the effect that he was particularly bothered by what horses wear in
front of their eyes and by the black round their mouths - were
certainly not to be explained from what we knew. But as I saw the
two of them sitting in front of me and at the same time heard
Hans’s description of his anxiety-horses, a further piece of
the solution shot through my mind, and a piece which I could well
understand might escape his father. I asked Hans jokingly whether
his horses wore eyeglasses, to which he replied that they did not.
I then asked him whether his father wore eyeglasses, to which,
against all the evidence, he once more said no. Finally I asked him
whether by ‘the black round the mouth’ he meant a
moustache; and I then disclosed to him that he was afraid of his
father, precisely because he was so fond of his mother. It must be,
I told him, that he thought his father was angry with him on that
account; but this was not so, his father was fond of him in spite
of it, and he might admit everything to him without any fear. Long
before he was in the world, I went on, I had known that a little
Hans would come who would be so fond of his mother that he would be
bound to feel afraid of his father because of it; and I had told
his father this. ‘But why do you think I’m angry with
you?’ his father interrupted me at this point; ‘have I
ever scolded you or hit you?’ Hans corrected him: ‘Oh
yes! You have hit me.’ ‘That’s not true. When was
it, anyhow?’ ‘This morning,’ answered the little
boy; and his father recollected that Hans had quite unexpectedly
butted his head into his stomach, so that he had given him as it
were a reflex blow with his hand. It was remarkable that he had not
brought this detail into connection with the neurosis; but he now
recognized it as an expression of the little boy’s hostile
disposition towards him, and perhaps also as a manifestation of a
need for getting punished for it.¹

  
¹
Later on the boy repeated his reaction
towards his father in a clearer and more complete manner, by first
hitting his father on the hand and then affectionately kissing the
same hand.

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

2032

   ‘Does the Professor talk to
God,’ Hans asked his father on the way home, ‘as he can
tell all that beforehand?’ I should be extraordinarily proud
of this recognition out of the mouth of a child, if I had not
myself provoked it by my joking boastfulness. From the date of this
consultation I received almost daily reports of the alterations in
the little patient’s condition. It was not to be expected
that he should be freed from his anxiety at a single blow by the
information I gave him; but it became apparent that a possibility
had now been offered him of bringing forward his unconscious
productions and of unfolding his phobia. From that time forward he
carried out a programme which I was able to announce to his father
in advance.

   ‘April 2nd. The
first
real improvement
is to be noted. While formerly he could never
be induced to go out of the street door for very long, and always
ran back into the house with every sign of fright if horses came
along, this time he stayed in front of the street-door for an hour
- even while carts were driving past, which happens fairly often in
our street. Every now and then he ran into the house when he saw a
cart approaching in the distance, but he turned round at once as
though he were changing his mind. In any case there is only a trace
of the anxiety left, and the progress since his enlightenment is
unmistakable.

   ‘In the evening he said:
"We get as far as the street-door now, so we’ll go into
the Stadtpark too."

   ‘On April 3rd, in the
morning he came into bed with me, whereas for the last few days he
had not been coming any more and had even seemed to be proud of not
doing so. "And why have you come to-day?" I asked.

   ‘
Hans
: "When
I’m not frightened I shan’t come any more."

   ‘
I
: "So you
come in to me because you’re frightened?"

   ‘
Hans
: "When
I’m not with you I’m frightened; when I’m not in
bed with you, then I’m frightened. When I’m not
frightened any more I shan’t come any more."

  
I
: "So you’re
fond of me and you feel anxious when you’re in your bed in
the morning? and that’s why you come in to me?"

  
Hans
: "Yes. Why did
you tell me I’m fond of
Mummy
and that’s why
I’m frightened, when I’m fond of
you
?"‘

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

2033

   Here the little boy was
displaying a really unusual degree of clarity. He was bringing to
notice the fact that his love for his father was wrestling with his
hostility towards him in his capacity of rival with his mother; and
he was reproaching his father with not having yet drawn his
attention to this interplay of forces, which was bound to end in
anxiety. His father did not entirely understand him as yet, for
during this conversation he only succeeded in convincing himself of
the little boy’s hostility towards him, the existence of
which I had asserted during our consultation. The following
dialogue, which I nevertheless give without alteration, is really
of more importance in connection with the progress of the
father’s enlightenment than with the little patient.

   ‘Unfortunately I did not
immediately grasp the meaning of this reproach. Because Hans is
fond of his mother he evidently wants to get me out of the way, and
he would then be in his father’s place. This suppressed
hostile wish is turned into anxiety
about
his father, and he
comes in to me in the morning to see if I have gone away.
Unfortunately at the moment I did not understand this, and said to
him:

   ‘"When you’re
alone, you’re just anxious for me and come in to
me."

   ‘
Hans
: "When
you’re away, I’m afraid you’re not coming
home."

   ‘
I
: "And have I
ever threatened you that I shan’t come home?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Not
you, but Mummy. Mummy’s told me she won’t come
back." (He had probably been naughty, and she had threatened
to go away.)

   ‘
I
: "She said
that because you were naughty."

   ‘
Hans
:
"Yes."

   ‘
I
: "So
you’re afraid I’m going away because you were naughty;
that’s why you come in to me."

   ‘When I got up from table
after breakfast Hans said: "Daddy, don’t trot away from
me!" I was struck by his saying "trot" instead of
"run", and replied: "Oho! So you’re afraid of
the horse trotting away from you." Upon which he
laughed.’

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

2034

   We know that this portion of
Hans’s anxiety had two constituents: there was fear
of
his father and fear
for
his father. The former was derived
from his hostility towards his father, and the latter from the
conflict between his affection, which was exaggerated at this point
by way of compensation, and his hostility.

   His father proceeds: ‘This
is no doubt the beginning of an important phase. His motive for at
the most just venturing outside the house but not going away from
it, and for turning round at the first attack of anxiety when he is
half-way, is his fear of not finding his parents at home because
they have gone away. He sticks to the house from love of his
mother, and he is afraid of my going away because of the hostile
wishes that he nourishes against me - for then
he
would be
the father.

   ‘In the summer I used to be
constantly leaving Gmunden for Vienna on business, and he was then
the father. You will remember that his fear of horses is connected
with the episode at Gmunden when a horse was to take Lizzi’s
luggage to the station. The repressed wish that I should drive to
the station, for then he would be alone with his mother (the wish
that "the horse should drive off"), is turned into fear
of the horse’s driving off; and in fact nothing throws him
into greater alarm than when a cart drives off from the courtyard
of the Head Customs House (which is just opposite our flat) and the
horses start moving.

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

2035

   ‘This new phase (hostile
sentiments towards his father) could only come out after he knew
that I was not angry because he was so fond of his mother.

   ‘In the afternoon I went
out in front of the street-door with him again; he again went out
in front of the house, and stayed there even when carts went past.
In the case of a few carts only he was afraid, and ran into the
entrance-hall. He also said to me in explanation: "Not all
white horses bite." That is to say: owing to the analysis some
white horses have already been recognized as "Daddy", and
they no longer bite; but there are others still left over which
do
bite.