Abstract

This paper reexamines the analysis of "Little Hans" one hundred years after its first publication. In the light of what we now know about the patient's family environment and his subsequent life and career, a broadened viewpoint is offered from which to observe his childhood analysis and the nature of his psychic suffering. The case of Little Hans represents a turning point in the early days of psychoanalysis as regards both Freud's greater ability to identify with the particular needs of the patient and his achieving at the same time a more mature function of "listening to listening" as an analyst. However, in narrating the case history, Freud overlooks the important role played by the specific family environment in the pathogenesis of Hans's phobia and his psychic growth as an adult. In this connection, the possible reasons that caused Freud to conceal the facts available to him about the psychological characteristics of Hans's family, and especially the atmosphere of "fights inside the parental couple" that marked Hans's early development, are also considered.

pdf

Share