Essay Sample on Little Hans' Phobia: Freud's Oedipus Complex Study

Introduction

The case study of Freud's study of little Hans provides a case evaluation regarding the phobia of a little boy, which facilitated the proof of Freud's theory of Oedipus complex. Little Hans developed a phobia that he shared with his parents during his early years as young as 3 (Brain & Mukherji 2005). When his father realized this, he referred him to Freud, a psychologist, and scholar whom he knew he could be interested in the case of his son based on his past research. Through their analysis, Freud believed that the phobia was due to the things that were going through his unconscious mind. He believed that the dreams and fears that Little Hans had were a symbol regarding unconscious passing through what he called the phallic stage of the psychosexual development. To collect the data for his study, Freud established a detailed study focusing on a single person over a long period while collecting data and feedback from Hans father (Brain & Mukherji 2005). Therefore, the study can be explained as a longitudinal case study due to the duration of the study.

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Additionally, the study can be described as a qualitative study that was based on observations that were made by Hans' father. During the age of three, the father reported that Hans had developed an interest in his penis where he started to masturbate. Therefore, his mother threatened that he would call a doctor who would cut it off. Afterward, the little Hans started having a fear of white horses. The little boy had numerous dreams as well as fantasies that were all generalized as fear for horses with black around the mouth and that were wearing blinkers. According to Freud, this was a representation of his father who had a moustache and wore spectacles (Brain & Mukherji 2005). Therefore, Freud suggested that the little Hans had developed a sexual attraction towards his mother but was afraid of his father who he saw as a threat who could castrate him since he was a more powerful competitor. The interpretation of horses as his father was based on the big penises that they depicted. When Hans was allowed on his parent's bed, he reported having a dream or fantasy where there was a big giraffe in the house. The big one had called out since he had taken out the crumpled one.

According to the case of little Hans, Freud saw the expression of the boy as a demonstration of the Oedipus complex (Rutter 1981). This is described by Freud as a sexual desire that little boys have towards their mother hence a rivalry with his father. The fear of horses demonstrates the fear of his father. Besides, his obsession with his penis demonstrates being at a phallic stage of development while experiencing the Oedipus complex (Keitlen 2003). The giraffe fantasy was interpreted as the desire to take his mother away from the father. The study findings and conclusions can be said to be credible due to the in-depth of the qualitative data following the long duration of the case study. This implies that Freud was able to make detailed conclusions. However, there is also a possibility of bias since only one person was used in the study. This implies that the study lacks a significant population sample that would demonstrate research validity. There is a question regarding whether the psychosexual development and Oedipus complex could be applied to all children (Kulish & Holtzman 2008). However, based on the length of the longitudinal study, the findings can be concluded to be credible although more research should be conducted to support the findings.