Freud - Complete Works (357 page)

   ‘
He
: "The stork
just makes them grow; the stork makes chickens grow - no, God
does."

   ‘I explained to him that
chickens lay eggs, and that out of the eggs there come other
chickens.

   ‘Hans laughed.

   ‘
I
: "Why do you
laugh?"

   ‘
He
: "Because I
like what you’ve told me."

   ‘He said he had seen it
happen already.

   ‘
I
:
"Where?"

   ‘
Hans
: "You did
it."

   ‘
I
: "Where did
I lay an egg?"

   ‘
Hans
: "At
Gmunden; you laid an egg in the grass, and all at once a chicken
came hopping out. You laid an egg once; I know you did, I know it
for certain. Because Mummy said so."

   ‘
I
: "I’II
ask Mummy if that’s true."

   ‘
Hans
: "It
isn’t true a bit. But
I
once laid an egg, and a
chicken came hopping out."

   ‘
I
:
"Where?"

   ‘
Hans
: "At
Gmunden I lay down in the grass - no, I knelt down - and the
children didn’t look on at me, and all at once in the morning
I said: ‘Look for it, children; I laid an egg
yesterday.’ And all at once they looked, and all at once they
saw an egg, and out of it there came a little Hans. Well, what are
you laughing for? Mummy didn’t know about it, and Karoline
didn’t know, because no one was looking on, and all at once I
laid an egg, and all at once it was there. Really and truly. Daddy,
when does a chicken grow out of an egg? When it’s left alone?
Must it be eaten?"

   ‘I explained the matter to
him.

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

2072

   ‘
Hans
: "All
right, let’s leave it with the hen; then a chicken’ll
grow. Let’s pack it up in the box and let’s take it to
Gmunden."'

   As his parents still hesitated to
give him the information which was already long overdue, little
Hans had by a bold stroke taken the conduct of the analysis into
his own hands. By means of a brilliant symptomatic act,
‘
Look!
’ he had said to them, ‘
this is
how I imagine that a birth takes place
.’ What he had told
the maid-servant about the meaning of his game with the doll had
been insincere; to his father he explicitly denied that he had only
wanted to see its widdler. After his father had told him, as a kind
of payment on account, how chickens come out of eggs, Hans gave a
combined expression to his dissatisfaction, his mistrust, and his
superior knowledge in a charming piece of persiflage, which
culminated with his last words in an unmistakable allusion to his
sister’s birth.

   ‘
I
: "What were
you playing at with your doll?"

   ‘
Hans
: "I said
‘Grete’ to her."

   ‘
I
:
"Why?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Because
I said ‘Grete’ to her."

   ‘
I
: "How did
you play?"

   ‘
Hans
:
‘"I just looked after her like a real baby."

   ‘
I
: "Would you
like to have a little girl?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Oh yes.
Why not? I should like to have one, but Mummy mustn’t have
one; I don’t like that."

   (He has often expressed this view
before. He is afraid of losing still more of his position if a
third child arrives.)

   ‘
I
: "But only
women have children."

   ‘
Hans
:
"I’m going to have a little girl."

   ‘
I
: "Where will
you get her, then?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Why,
from the stork.
He takes the little girl out
, and all at
once the little girl lays an egg, and out of the egg there comes
another Hanna - another Hanna. Out of Hanna there comes another
Hanna. No,
one
Hanna comes out."

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

2073

   ‘
I
:
"You’d like to have a little girl."

   ‘
Hans
: "
Yes,
next year I’m going to have one
, and she’ll be
called Hanna too."

   ‘
I
: "But why
isn’t Mummy to have a little girl?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Because
I
want to have a little girl for once."

   ‘
I
: "But you
can’t have a little girl."

   ‘
Hans
: "Oh yes,
boys have girls and girls have boys."¹

   ‘
I
: "Boys
don’t have children. Only women, only Mummies have
children."

   ‘
Hans
: "But why
shouldn’t I?"

   ‘
I
: "Because
God’s arranged it like that."

   ‘
Hans
: "But why
don’t
you
have one? Oh yes, you’ll have one all
right. Just you wait."

   ‘
I
: "I shall
have to wait some time."

   ‘
Hans
: "But I
belong to you."

   ‘
I
: "But Mummy
brought you into the world. So you belong to Mummy and
me."

   ‘
Hans
: "Does
Hanna belong to me or to Mummy?"

   ‘
I
: "To
Mummy."

   ‘
Hans
: "No, to
me.
Why not to me and Mummy?
"

   ‘
I
: "Hanna
belongs to me, Mummy, and you."

   ‘
Hans
: "There
you are, you see."'

   So long as the child is in
ignorance of the female genitals, there is naturally a vital gap in
his comprehension of sexual matters.

   ‘On April 24th my wife and
I enlightened Hans up to a certain point: we told him that children
grow inside their Mummy, and are then brought into the world by
being pressed out of her like a "lumf", and that this
involves a great deal of pain.

   ‘In the afternoon we went
out in front of the house. There was a visible improvement in his
state. He ran after carts, and the only thing that betrayed a
remaining trace of his anxiety was the fact that he did not venture
away from the neighbourhood of the street-door and could not be
induced to go for any considerable walk.

  
¹
Here is another bit of infantile sexual
theory with an unsuspected meaning.

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

2074

   ‘On April 25th Hans butted
me in the stomach with his head, as he has already done once
before. I asked him if he was a goat.

   ‘"Yes," he said,
"a ram." I enquired where he had seen a ram.

   ‘
He
: "At
Gmunden: Fritzl had one." (Fritzl had a real lamb to play
with.)

   ‘
I
: "You must
tell me about the lamb. What did it do?"

   ‘
Hans
: "You
know, Fräulein Mizzi" (a school-mistress who lived in the
house) "used always to put Hanna on the lamb, but it
couldn’t stand up then and it couldn’t butt. If you
went up to it it used to butt, because it had horns. Fritzl used to
lead it on a string and tie it to a tree. He always tied it to a
tree."

   ‘
I
: "Did the
lamb butt you?"

   ‘
Hans
: "It
jumped up at me; Fritzl took me up to it once. . . .
I went up to it once and didn’t know, and all at once it
jumped up at me. It was such fun - I wasn’t
frightened."

   ‘This was certainly
untrue.

   ‘
I
: "Are you
fond of Daddy?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Oh
yes."

   ‘
I
: "Or perhaps
not."

   ‘Hans was playing with a
little toy horse. At that moment the horse fell down, and Hans
shouted out: "The horse has fallen down! Look what a row
it’s making!"

   ‘
I
:
"You’re a little vexed with Daddy because Mummy’s
fond of him."

   ‘
Hans
:
"No."

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

2075

   ‘
I
: "Then why
do you always cry whenever Mummy gives me a kiss? It’s
because you’re jealous."

   ‘
Hans
:
"Jealous, yes."

   ‘
I
:
"You’d like to be Daddy yourself."

   ‘
Hans
: "Oh
yes."

   ‘
I
: "What would
you like to do if you were Daddy?"

   ‘
Hans
: "And you
were Hans? I’d like to take you to Lainz every Sunday - no,
every week-day too. If I were Daddy I’d be ever so nice and
good."

   ‘
I
: "But what
would you like to do with Mummy?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Take
her to Lainz, too."

   ‘
I
: "And what
besides?"

   ‘
Hans
:
"Nothing."

   ‘
I
: "Then why
were you jealous?"

   ‘
Hans
: "I
don’t know."

   ‘
I
: "Were you
jealous at Gmunden, too?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Not at
Gmunden." (This is not true.) "At Gmunden I had my own
things. I had a garden at Gmunden and children too."

   ‘
I
: "Can you
remember how the cow got a calf?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Oh yes.
It came in a cart." (No doubt he had been told this at
Gmunden; another attack on the stork theory.) "And another cow
pressed it out of its behind." (This was already the fruit of
his enlightenment, which he was trying to bring into harmony with
the cart theory.)

   ‘
I
: "It
isn’t true that it came in a cart; it came out of the cow in
the cow-shed."

   ‘Hans disputed this, saying
that he had seen the cart in the morning. I pointed out to him that
he had probably been told this about the calf having come in a
cart. In the end he admitted this, and said: "Most likely
Berta told me, or not - or perhaps it was the landlord. He was
there and it was at night, so it
is
true after all, what
I’ve been telling you - or it seems to me nobody told me; I
thought it to myself in the night."

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

2076

   ‘Unless I am mistaken, the
calf was taken away in a cart; hence the confusion.

   ‘
I
: "Why
didn’t you think it was the stork that brought it?"

   ‘
Hans
: "I
didn’t want to think that."

   ‘
I
: "But you
thought the stork brought Hanna?"

   ‘
Hans
: "In the
morning" (of the confinement) "I thought so. - I say,
Daddy, was Herr Reisenbichler" (our landlord) "there when
the calf came out of the cow?"¹

   ‘
I
: "I
don’t know. Do you think he was?"

   ‘
Hans
: "I think
so. . . . Daddy, have you noticed now and then that
horses have something black on their mouths?"

   ‘
I
: "I’ve
noticed it now and then in the street at Gmunden."

   ‘
I
: "Did you
often get into bed with Mummy at Gmunden?"

   ‘
Hans
:
"Yes."

   ‘
I
: "And you
used to think to yourself you were Daddy?"

   ‘
Hans
:
"Yes."

   ‘
I
: "And then
you felt afraid of Daddy?"

   ‘
Hans
: "
You
know everything. I didn’t know anything
."

   ‘
I
: "When
Fritzl fell down you thought: ‘If only Daddy would fall down
like that! ‘ And when the lamb butted you you thought:
‘If only it would butt Daddy!’ Can you remember the
funeral at Gmunden?" (The first funeral that Hans had seen. He
often recalls it, and it is no doubt a screen memory.)

   ‘
Hans
: "Yes.
What about it?"

   ‘
I
: "You
thought then that if only Daddy were to die you’d be
Daddy."

   ‘
Hans
:
"Yes."

   ‘
I
: "What carts
are you still afraid of?"

  
¹
Hans, having good reason to mistrust
information given him by grown-up people, was considering whether
the landlord might not be more trustworthy than his
father.

  
²
The train of thought is as follows. For a
long time his father had refused to believe what he said about
there being something black on horses’ mouths, but finally it
had been verified.

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

2077

   ‘
Hans
: "All of
them."

   ‘
I
: "You know
that’s not true."

   ‘
Hans
:
"I’m not afraid of carriages and pair or cabs with one
horse. I’m afraid of buses and luggage-carts, but only when
they’re loaded up, not when they’re empty. When
there’s one horse and the cart’s loaded full up, then
I’m afraid; but when there are two horses and it’s
loaded full up, then I’m not afraid."

   ‘
I
: "Are you
afraid of buses because there are so many people inside?"

   ‘
Hans
: "Because
there’s so much luggage on the top."

   ‘
I
: "When Mummy
was having Hanna, was she loaded full up too?"

   ‘
Hans
:
"Mummy’ll be loaded full up again when she has another
one, when another one begins to grow, when another one’s
inside her."

   ‘
I
: "And
you’d like that?"

   ‘
Hans
:
"Yes."

   ‘
I
: "You said
you didn’t want Mummy to have another baby."

   ‘
Hans
: "Well,
then she won’t be loaded up again. Mummy said if Mummy
didn’t want one, God didn’t want one either. If Mummy
doesn’t want one she won’t have one." (Hans
naturally asked yesterday if there were any more babies inside
Mummy. I told him not, and said that if God did not wish it none
would grow inside her.)