A / AS Psychology.. Key Studies
• Abnormal Psychology
• Key study
• Sigmund Freud (1909)
Sigmund Freud (1909)
Analysis of a phobia of a five
year old boy
The psychoanalytic theory
Sigmund Freud
The tripartite structure of human
personality
Tripartite means - in three parts
The tripartite structure of
personality
• The earliest part of the human personality
• THE ID (the biological part)
(instincts & drives)
• Present at birth
• Driven by the pleasure principle
The tripartite structure of
personality
• The second part of the human personality to
develop
• THE EGO (the executive part)
• 1 - 3 years
• Driven by the reality principle
The tripartite structure of
personality
• The third part of the human personality to
develop
• THE SUPEREGO (the moral part)
• 3 - 5 years
• Driven by the anxiety principle
The tripartite structure of
personality
• The psychic apparatus
ID>>>neurotic>EGO<moral<<<SuperEGO
conflict
conflict
CONFLICT RESOLVED BY
DREAMS
NEUROTIC SYMPTOMS
DEFENCE MECHANISMS
The tripartite personality
ID >>> EGO <<< SUPEREGO
• DEVELOP DURING THE
FIVE psychosexual stages of
development
The FIVE psychosexual stages
• The Oral (Birth - 1 year)
• The Anal (1 - 3 years)
• The Phallic (3 - 5/6 years)
• The Latent (6 - puberty)
• The Genital (adulthood)
Stage 1 - the ORAL stage
• Mouth (sucking) is the source of pleasure
• The ID is in control
In the ORAL stage …….
• Fixation caused by
• Over indulgence
• symptoms include selfishness,
dependency, compulsive talking
• Frustration
• Symptoms include nail biting, sarcasm,
thumb sucking, greed
Stage 2 - the ANAL Stage
• Elimination of faeces is the source
of pleasure
The EGO develops
(the reality principle)
In the ANAL stage ….
• Fixation (a) Anal expulsive:
symptoms: giving to charity, potters, gardeners,
(sublimating the wish to smear)
• Fixation (b) Anal retentive
symptoms: miserly, thrifty, orderly, obstinate
Stage 3 : The PHALLIC stage
• The Superego develops
• Driven by the anxiety principle
• The Oedipus conflict (boys)
• The Electra conflict (girls)
In the PHALLIC stage….
• Fixation caused by failure to resolve the
Oedipus / Electra conflict
• Symptoms include: homosexuality,
curiosity, exhibitionism
– a surgeon may be sublimating hostile feelings
towards same sex parent
– Writer of pornography may be sublimating
sexual preoccupations
Read the Oedipus / Electra
conflict (Cardwell pp 551)
• The analysis of a phobia of a five year old
boy
• THE CASE STUDY of LITTLE HANS
• (Sigmund Freud 1909)
Little Hans
• This is the ONLY case study of a child
undertaken by Freud
• Freud’s ideas about infant sexuality were
based on his work with adult women
• (and his own self analysis)
Little Hans
• The CASE STUDY
• (psychoanalytic therapy)
was carried out by correspondence and
interviews with Hans’ father
• First reports when Hans was three
Little Hans
• Hans was interested in his ‘widdler’
• His mother told him
• “not to play with your widdler .. or else she
would call the doctor to come and cut it off”
• Hans’ mother threatened to leave him
Little Hans
• Hans’ baby sister was born - he was told
the stork had brought the baby
• Early jealousy of sister
• Continued interest in his widdler, according
to father his dreams and fantasies were of
widdlers and of ‘widdling’
Little Hans
• When Hans was five - father wrote to Freud
• “Hans is afraid of horses, afraid a horse will
bite him in the street, this fear seems to be
connected to his being frightened by a large
penis”
Little Hans
• Freud & father try to make sense of what
Hans was experiencing and to resolve his
phobia of horses
• Freud noted that Hans’ fear of horses developed
after the child had anxiety dreams of losing his
mother AND after he has been warned not to
play with his widdler
Little Hans
• Hans dreams about a giraffe were
explained as ‘fear of big penis’
• (long neck = big penis)
• Freud theorised that Hans’ fear of
horses was really fear of father
• Horse = symbolic for father
Little Hans
READ THE STUDY
• Freud’s conclusion
• Little Hans phobia of horses was
really fear of father
• (castration fear) during resolution
of the Oedipus Conflict
– Fear resolved when Oedipus conflict resolved
Little Hans: Criticisms
• Hans is analysed by the father who is
emotionally involved
• Father is biased as he already admires the
work of Freud and may have believed that
the boy was in the Oedipal (phallic stage)
• Father ‘put words into Hans’ mouth’
‘Daddy I thought something: I was in the bath,
and then the plumber came and unscrewed it.
Then he took a big borer and stuck it into my
stomach’. – Hans
Interpretation
Han’s remembers father having intercourse with
mother whilst in her womb. Han’s understands
that he was created by father having sex with
mother.
Hans ‘The plumber came, and first he took away
my behind with a pair of pincers, and then gave
me another, and then the same with my widdler.
He said: ‘Let me see your behind! And I had to
turn round and he took it away; and then he said:
‘Let me see your widdler!’
Interpretation – Hans has identified with father
Finally Hans says he would like his dad to be granddad
so that he can marry mum and have children.
But, much of this was the boy agreeing to his father’s
leading questions.
Little Hans: Criticisms
• The case study seems to be both
scientific evidence and treatment
• These should be separated because
• If we ‘treat’ what we are investigating how
can it remain unchanged to be investigated?
Little Hans: Criticisms
• BUT
• Freud did deal with real people &
their problems
• Not neat & tidy but has
• “ecological validity”
Little Hans: Criticisms
• AND unlike adult ‘case studies’
• No searching through ‘past memory’ Hans
father simply asked Hans!
Little Hans: Other explanations
• Perhaps Hans dreams about widdlers &
widdling were caused by his fear that
his mother might cut off his penis?
• But - Freud’s theory was that mothers
were the primary love object of little
boys, (not that Mother could be feared)
Little Hans: other explanations
• Erich Fromm (& Social Learning Theory)
– It was because Hans’ father took such an
interest in him, that Hans identified with his
father and wished to be like him
• Bowlby
– Hans may have been afraid of being separated
from his mother (separation anxiety)
– thus feared horses (as main mode of transport)
Little Hans: other explanations
• Learning Theory
• Hans had seen a horse fall down in the
street
• (equivalent to road accident today)
• He ‘learned to be’ afraid of horses!
Little Hans - Ethical issues
• Treatment not very child friendly
(and included leading questions)
• Freud’s theory of the Oedipus/Electra
conflict is proposed by some psychologists
as the reason why people are reluctant to
believe children who report sexual abuse
Little Hans - Ethical Issues
• Hans was interviewed when he was 19
• He had no recollection of any of the
discussions - “No long term effects”
Hans said when he read the case study
“it came as something from the unknown”
Sigmund Freud
The Case study of Little Hans
• List three ways in which people show unconscious
wishes in their behaviour
• How can you criticise Freud’s method of
collecting data?
• What differences are there between the attitudes of
Han’s parents and the attitudes of parents today?
Sigmund Freud - LITTLE HANS
• The analysis of a phobia of a
five year old boy
• A Case study
• The Oedipus Conflict & its
resolution by psychoanalysis
(therapy)
Sigmund Freud
• Have YOU resolved your
• Oedipus or Electra conflict??
• How can you tell?