Addendum; Afterthoughts on Little Hans and the Universality of the Oedipus Complex

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 557-562
Author(s):  
Frank Lachmann
Keyword(s):  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Little Hans

The Receding Animal: Theorizing Anxiety and Attachment in Psychoanalysis from Freud to Imre Hermann

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Marinelli ◽  
Andreas Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Death Instinct ◽  
Case Histories ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Status ◽  
Animal Phobias ◽  
Indirect Observation ◽  
To Come ◽  
Wolf Man ◽  
Little Hans

ArgumentAnimals played an important role in the formation of psychoanalysis as a theoretical and therapeutic enterprise. They are at the core of texts such as Freud's famous case histories of Little Hans, the Rat Man, or the Wolf Man. The infantile anxiety triggered by animals provided the essential link between the psychology of individual neuroses and the ambivalent status of the “totem” animal in so-called primitive societies in Freud's attempt to construct an anthropological basis for the Oedipus complex in Totem and Taboo. In the following, we attempt to track the status of animals as objects of indirect observation as they appear in Freud's classical texts, and in later revisionist accounts such as Otto Rank's Trauma of Birth and Imre Hermann's work on the clinging instinct. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Freudian conception of patients' animal phobias is substantially revised within Hermann's original psychoanalytic theory of instincts which draws heavily upon ethological observations of primates. Although such a reformulation remains grounded in the idea of “archaic” animal models for human development, it allows to a certain extent to empiricize the speculative elements of Freud's later instinct theory (notably the death instinct) and to come to a more embodied account of psychoanalytic practice.

‘Does the Professor Talk to God?’: Countertransference and Jewish Identity in the Case of Little Hans

1999 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter L. Rudnytsky
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Case History ◽  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Little Hans

Freud's case of Little Hans occupies a crucial position in his elaboration of the Oedipus complex. This paper calls into question the universality of Freud's paradigm from the standpoint of race by excavating submerged countertransferential features of the text. A 1942 paper by Max Graf, Little Hans's father, reveals both that Freud gave the boy a birthday gift of a rocking horse and was responsible for the decision to raise him as a Jew (and hence to have him circumcised). Freud's gift bears an obvious connection to Hans's phobia, but he makes no mention of it in his case history. Nor does he disclose that the boy is Jewish; only in a footnote does he touch on the theme of Jewishness when he ascribes anti-Semitism to the castration complex. Freud's effacing of Hans's Jewish identity is an attempt to efface his own, but when Freud calls the Oedipus complex his ‘shibboleth,’ his choice of a Greek hero as the representative of humanity is undercut by the reminder of Jewish difference.

The Oedipus Complex: Comments on 'The Case of Little Hans

1968 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich Fromm ◽  
Narvaez M. Fernando ◽  
Fernando Narváez
Keyword(s):  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Little Hans

Little Hans and the “Enigmatic Messages” of His Parents

2020 ◽  
Vol 107 (6) ◽  
pp. 551-581
Author(s):  
Siegfried Zepf ◽  
Judith Zepf
Keyword(s):  
Case History ◽  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Psychoanalytic Treatment ◽  
Little Hans ◽  
The Way

The authors discuss the psychoanalytic treatment of Little Hans, drawing on the perspective offered by Laplanche's concept of “enigmatic messages,” which they believe can contribute to a better understanding of this case history. They conclude that Little Hans's positive Oedipus complex conceals his negative Oedipus complex in which he represents his parents’ oedipal problems in a distorted fashion. They demonstrate the way his parents project aspects of these problems into Hans's psyche, where his subsequent identifications with them lead to substitutive formations. They trace the course of Little Hans's horse phobia and examine his search for substitutive formations that have to align with his parents’ defenses if they are to succeed in securing his safety and their affection.

Review of Rhea Complex: A Detour Around Oedipus Complex.

1987 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 832-832
Author(s):  
No authorship indicated
Keyword(s):  
Oedipus Complex

‘Family Romance’ and the Oedipalization of Freudian Psychoanalysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-187
Author(s):  
Herman Westerink ◽  
Philippe Van Haute
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Sexual Difference ◽  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Difference Family ◽  
Radical Theory ◽  
Freudian Psychoanalysis ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Family Romance ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
Informative Text

Although Freud's ‘Family Romances’ from 1909 is hardly ever discussed at length in secondary literature, this article highlights this short essay as an important and informative text about Freud's changing perspectives on sexuality in the period in which the text was written. Given the fact that Freud, in his 1905 Three Essays, develops a radical theory of infantile sexuality as polymorphously perverse and as autoerotic pleasure, we argue that ‘Family Romances’, together with the closely related essay on infantile sexual theories (1908), paves the way for new theories of sexuality defined in terms of object relations informed by knowledge of sexual difference. ‘Family Romances’, in other words, preludes the introduction of the Oedipus complex, but also – interestingly – gives room for a Jungian view of sexuality and sexual phantasy. ‘Family Romances’ is thus a good illustration of the complex way in which Freud's theories of sexuality developed through time.

César Hautot – ein naturalistischer Ödipus? Guy de Maupassants Hautot père et fils auf der Schwelle zur Psychoanalyse

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-197
Author(s):  
Claudia Jacobi
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Literary Representation ◽  
Short Novel ◽  
Scientific Approach

Abstract Literary criticism has mentioned some affinities between Guy de Maupassant’s literary work and Freud’s psychoanalysis, without ever reflecting on Maupassant’s literary anticipation of the Oedipus complex. The latter is particularly evident in the short novel Hautot père et fils (1889), which has not received much attention to date. The article aims to illustrate some evident parallels between Maupassant’s literary representation of a father-son conflict and Freud’s scientific approach. In doing so, it does not intend to deliver a demonstration of the emergence of Freudian concepts from naturalistic fiction. It shall rather be considered as a literary case study, which illustrates the discourse-historical process of transformation from the physiological paradigm of naturalism to the psychological paradigm of the arising psychoanalysis.

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