"Young Hans"

"My dear Professor," wrote the distraught father to Sigmund Freud the celebrated "nerve doctor," "I am sending you a little more [information] about Hans." In his letter, Dr. Max Graf described his five-year-old son's symptoms. The boy had developed a paralyzing fear of horses. Hans was, in fact, so afraid that he refused to leave the house. In 1908, horses were an everyday sight on the busy streets of Vienna. It would be almost impossible to avoid having some kind of contact with them. To escape them completely Hans would have to stay in the house forever. Could Freud help him?

Freud realized that this case was unusual, even for him. To cure Hans would lend credence to Freud's belief about the connections between the unconscious and the symptoms of neurosis that he saw in many of his patients. For some time, Freud had been busy collecting "case studies"about his patients and their psychological problems. But all his patients were all adults whose distress had often begun in childhood. Here was a rare opportunity to study the unconscious mind of a child!

During the nineteenth century, few understood the unconscious or even acknowledged its existence. Freud disagreed. He believed the unconscious exercised a powerful influence on individuals' behavior. Whenever persons could not confront their real concerns or fears, which were locked in the unconscious, those concerns and fears manifested themselves in painful and destructive behavior that could not easily be explained. Freud hoped therapy would enable his patients to unlock the unconscious, to bring their concerns and fears to the surface, and to resolve them. Why had Hans developed an irrational fear of horses? After reading Dr. Graf's letter, Freud thought he could help Hans, but perhaps Hans could also help him confirm his theory about the unconscious.

Freud began to work with Hans and his father. Over time, he determined that the best way to cure the boy was to have his father, rather than Freud himself, supervise the treatment. From his talks with Hans, Dr. Graf learned that his son was especially afraid of the big dray horses he saw on the streets, and in particular of the harnesses they wore around their eyes and mouths. Upon hearing this, Freud realized that the horses' blinkers looked to Hans just like a pair of glasses and the harness bits like a mustache. Hans's father wore glasses and had a mustache. Freud concluded that Hans was identifying the horses with his father, and that Hans was not afraid of horses at all. He was really afraid of his father! Yet the more important question remained unanswered: why?

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