Freud - Complete Works (351 page)

Fig. 2.

   ‘The position of our
street-door is as follows: Opposite it is the warehouse of the
Office for the Taxation of Food-Stuffs, with a loading dock at
which carts are driving up all day long to fetch away boxes,
packing-cases, etc. This courtyard is cut off from the street by
railings; and the entrance gates to the courtyard are opposite our
house (Fig. 2). I have noticed for some days that Hans is specially
frightened when carts drive into or out of the yard, a process
which involves their taking a corner. I asked at the time why he
was so much afraid, and he replied: "
I’m afraid the
horses will fall down when the cart turns
" (
a
). He
is equally frightened when carts standing at the loading dock start
moving in order to drive off (
b
). Further (
c
), he is
more frightened of large dray-horses than of small horses, and of
rough farm-horses than of smart horses (such as those in a carriage
and pair). He is also more frightened when a vehicle drives past
quickly (
d
) than when the horses trot up slowly. These
differentiations have, of course, only come to light clearly during
the last few days.’

   I should be inclined to say that,
in consequence of the analysis, not only the patient but his phobia
too had plucked up courage and was venturing to show itself.

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

2036

   ‘On April 5th Hans came in
to our bedroom again, and was sent back to his own bed. I said to
him: "As long as you come into our room in the mornings, your
fear of horses won’t get better." He was defiant,
however, and replied: "I shall come in all the same, even if I
am
afraid." So he will not let himself be forbidden to
visit his mother.

   ‘After breakfast we were to
go downstairs. Hans was delighted, and planned that, instead of
stopping in front of the street-door as usual, he should go across
the street into the yard, where he had often enough seen
street-boys playing. I told him I should be pleased if he were to
go across, and took the opportunity of asking him why he is so much
afraid when the loaded carts at the loading dock start moving
(
b
).

   ‘
Hans
:
"I’m afraid of standing by the cart and the cart driving
off quick, and of my standing on it and wanting to get on to the
board (the loading dock), and my driving off in the cart."

   ‘
I
: ‘And if
the cart stands still? Aren’t you afraid then? Why
not?"

   ‘
Hans
: "If the
cart stands still, then I can get on to the cart quick and get on
to the board."

   ‘(So Hans is planning to
climb over a cart on to the loading dock, and is afraid of the cart
driving away while he is on it.)

   ‘
I
: "Perhaps
you’re afraid you won’t come home any more if you drive
away in the cart?"

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

2037

Hans’s projected route

Fig. 3.

   ‘
Hans
: "Oh no!
I can always come back to Mummy, in the cart or in a cab. I can
tell him the number of the house too."

   ‘
I
: "Then why
are
you afraid?"

   ‘
Hans
: "I
don’t know. But the Professor’ll know. D’you
think he’ll know?"

   ‘
I
: "And why do
you want to get over on to the board?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Because
I’ve never been up there, and I should so much like to be
there; and d’you know why I should like to go there? Because
I should like to load and unload the boxes, and I should like to
climb about on the boxes there. I should so like to climb about
there. D’you know who I learnt the climbing about from? Some
boys climbed on the boxes, and I saw them, and I want to do it
too."

   ‘His wish was not
fulfilled. For when Hans ventured once more in front of the
street-door, the few steps across the street and into the courtyard
awoke too great resistances in him, because carts were constantly
driving into the yard.’

   The Professor only knows that the
game which Hans intended to play with the loaded carts must have
stood in the relation of a symbolic substitute to some other wish
as to which he had so far uttered no word. But, if it did not seem
too daring, this wish might already, even at this stage, be
constructed.

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

2038

   ‘In the afternoon we again
went out in front of the street door, and when I returned I asked
Hans:

   ‘"Which horses are you
actually most afraid of?"

   ‘
Hans
: "All of
them."

   ‘
I
:
"That’s not true."

   ‘
Hans
:
"I’m most afraid of horses with a thing on their
mouths."

   ‘
I
: "What do
you mean? The piece of iron they have in their mouths?"

   ‘
Hans
: "No.
They have something black on their mouths." (He covered his
mouth with his hand.)

   ‘
I
: "What? A
moustache, perhaps?"

   ‘
Hans
(laughing):
"Oh no!"

   ‘
I
: "Have they
all got it?"

   ‘
Hans
: "No,
only a few of them."

   ‘
I
: "What is it
that they’ve got on their mouths?"

   ‘
Hans
: "A black
thing." (I think in reality it must be the thick piece of
harness that dray-horses wear over their noses.)

Fig. 4.

   ‘"And I’m most
afraid of furniture-vans, too."

   ‘
I
:"Why?"

   ‘
Hans
: "I think
when furniture-horses are dragging a heavy van they’ll fall
down."

   ‘
I
: "So
you’re not afraid with a small cart?"

   ‘
Hans
: "No.
I’m not afraid with a small cart or with a post-office van.
I’m most afraid too when a bus comes along."

   ‘
I
: "Why?
Because its so big?"

   ‘
Hans
: "No.
Because once a horse in a bus fell down."

   ‘
I
:
"When?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Once
when I went out with Mummy in spite of my ‘nonsense’,
when I bought the waistcoat." (This was subsequently confirmed
by his mother.)

   ‘
I
: "What did
you think when the horse fell down?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Now
it’ll always be like this. All horses in buses’ll fall
down."

   ‘
I
: "In all
buses?"

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

2039

   ‘
Hans
: "Yes.
And in furniture-vans too. Not often in furniture-vans."

   ‘
I
: "You had
your nonsense already at that time?"

   ‘
Hans
: "No. I
only got it then. When the horse in the bus fell down, it gave me
such a fright, really! That was when I got the nonsense."

   ‘
I
: "But the
nonsense was that you thought a horse would bite you. And now you
say you were afraid a horse would fall down."

   ‘
Hans
: "Fall
down and bite."¹

   ‘
I
: "Why did it
give you such a fright?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Because
the horse went like this with its feet," (He lay down on the
ground and showed me how it kicked about.) "It gave me a
fright
because it made a row with its feet
."

   ‘
I
: "Where did
you go with Mummy that day?"

   ‘
Hans
: "First
to the Skating Rink, then to a
café
, then to buy a
waistcoat, then to the pastry-cook’s with Mummy, and then
home in the evening; we went back through the Stadtpark." (All
of this was confirmed by my wife, as well as the fact that the
anxiety broke out immediately afterwards.)

   ‘
I
: "Was the
horse dead when it fell down?"

   ‘
Hans
:
Yes!"

   ‘
I
: "How do you
know that?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Because
I saw it." (He laughed.) "No, it wasn’t a bit
dead."

   ‘
I
: "Perhaps
you thought it was dead?"

   ‘
Hans
: "No.
Certainly not. I only said it as a joke." (His expression at
the moment, however, had been serious.)

   ‘As he was tired, I let him
run off. He only told me besides this that he had first been afraid
of bus-horses, then of all others, and only in the end of
furniture-van horses.

  
¹
Hans was right, however improbable this
collocation may sound. The train of thought, as we shall see, was
that the horse (his father) would bite him because of his wish that
it (his father) should fall down.

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

2040

   ‘On the way back from Lainz
there were a few more questions:

   ‘
I
: "When the
bus-horse fell down, what colour was it: white, red, brown,
grey?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Black.
Both horses were black."

   ‘
I
: "Was it big
or little?"

   ‘
Hans
:
"Big."

   ‘
I
: "Fat or
thin?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Fat.
Very big and fat."

   ‘
I
: "When the
horse fell down, did you think of your daddy?"

   ‘
Hans
:
"Perhaps. Yes. It’s possible."'

   His father’s investigations
may have been without success at some points; but it does no harm
to make acquaintance at close quarters with a phobia of this sort -
which we may feel inclined to name after its new objects. For in
this way we get to see how diffuse it really is. It extends on to
horses and on to carts, on to the fact that horses fall down and
that they bite, on to horses of a particular character, on to carts
that are heavily loaded. I will reveal at once that all these
characteristics were derived from the circumstance that the anxiety
originally had no reference at all to horses but was transposed on
to them secondarily and had now become fixed upon those elements of
the horse-complex which showed themselves well adapted for certain
transferences. We must specially acknowledge one most important
result of the boy’s examination by his father. We have
learned the immediate precipitating cause after which the phobia
broke out. This was when the boy saw a big heavy horse fall down;
and one at least of the interpretations of this impression seems to
be that emphasized by his father, namely, that Hans at that moment
perceived a wish that his father might fall down in the same way -
and be dead. His serious expression as he was telling the story no
doubt referred to this unconscious meaning. May there not have been
yet another meaning concealed behind all this? And what can have
been the significance of the making a row with its legs?

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

2041

   ‘For some time Hans has
been playing horses in the room; he trots about, falls down, kicks
about with his feet, and neighs. Once he tied a small bag on like a
nose-bag. He has repeatedly run up to me and bitten me.’

   In this way he was accepting the
last interpretations more decidedly than he could in words, but
naturally with a change of parts, for the game was played in
obedience to a wishful phantasy. Thus
he
was the horse, and
bit his father, and in this way was identifying himself with his
father.