New York Institute for Psychotherapy Training in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescense

“Little Hans,” Child Analysis, and A Contemporary Overview, From the Heroic Age to the Present

by Harold Blum, M.D.

Teri J. Schwartz, Ph.D., Reviewer

NYIPT Supervisor Teri Schwartz reports on a paper that sheds new light on the first child therapy case, treated by Dr. Sigmund Freud. This was the case of Little Hans, a 5-year-old boy with a phobia about horses who lived in a time when horse drawn carriages were the only means of transportation! For decades, therapists have marveled at how Hans received therapy from Freud through his father, but many of the details of his life were left out as we now learn.

Dr. Blum presented this paper on November 10, 2006, as part of the NPAP Scientific Meetings in Honor of Sigmund Freud’s 150^th birthday. Having read Freud’s case study of “Little Hans” many times and having given much thought to his phobia of horses, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to hear so noted a psychoanalyst as Dr. Blum present his views. I had hoped that Dr. Blum would discuss the obvious flaws in this first child analysis, such as the traumas that “Little Hans” experienced (e.g., actual threats of castration by his mother for masturbating, and Hans’ observing the bloodiness of childbirth when his mother gave birth to his sister) that might have contributed to the development of his phobia.

Dr. Blum went beyond the case study itself to include historical information culled from archival material (e.g., Freud’s letters), and from a 1952 interview with “Little Hans” (Herbert Graff) and his father (Max Graff). Moreover, in his re-analysis, Dr. Blum incorporated advances in psychoanalytic theory to include the role of parental discord, child abuse and maltreatment, and parental pathology, in the development of “Little Hans’s” symptoms, and he discussed the concept of resiliency in Hans’ recovery.

Throughout his presentation, Dr. Blum reminded the audience that this analysis is nearly 100 years old and that it took place in a particular time, place and culture. At the turn of the century, Viennese culture included an intolerance of masturbation, little understanding of child development, and psychoanalysis was in its infancy. Perhaps the most poignant theme in this presentation, was that generations of analysts and analysts-in-training have missed (in their reading of the case study) the obvious child abuse that occurred in this family. “Little Hans’s” mother (Olga) beat his sister Hanna when she was between six and 18 months while “Little Hans” played within earshot of his sister’s cries.

Olga had been one of Freud’s patients in 1897 before her marriage to Max Graff. Her father died when she was 10 months old. Two of her brothers committed suicide. She was viewed as compulsive, anxious and hostile. During “Little Hans’s” analysis, Freud maintained contact with the Graff family. Max (the father) had joined Freud’s Wednesday evening seminar and became part of the growing circle of Freud’s admirers interested in psychoanalysis. Freud had encouraged the members of his seminar to observe their children and present their observations to the group.

When “Little Hans” became symptomatic, Max was directed, under Freud’s supervision, to conduct the analysis utilizing Freud’s current view of neurosis as stemming from the Oedipal Complex. The need for boundaries and confidentiality had not yet been established in treatment. Moreover, in Freud’s attempt to protect his former patient Olga, and perhaps, preserve the family’s image, he did not include important information about “Little Hans’s” mother in the case study. Olga had never wanted any children, and although she did develop a close relationship with her son, she did not want another child. Olga suffered what we would call a post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter. We might call her a neglectful mother. She would leave “Little Hans” on the balcony for hours watching other children play. Olga was a difficult woman who had a hard time getting along with others. She was socially avoidant and in many ways her son’s phobia was a blessing in disguise. It allowed her to remain close to home and not venture out where she might have to interact with others.

As a writer, Freud was unique in that he later returned to his older writings, adding footnotes reflective of newer developments in his theorizing; but one wonders why he did not return to this case study to amend it. At the time he wrote the case of “Little Hans,” he had only posited a positive Oedipal situation and had not developed his tripartite theory and he, therefore, had limited understanding of ego development and the mechanisms of defense. Throughout his life, Freud reworked his understanding of anxiety, its etiology and purpose, yet he did not go back to include his newer views in relationship to “Little Hans’s” phobia. Perhaps this case study served its purpose for Freud: It launched child analysis and he was able to “protect” his patient, “Little Hans’s” mother.

In closing, Dr. Blum pondered whether “Little Hans’s” life would have been different had he not been analyzed. He raised the concept of resiliency. In the case study of “Little Hans,” one can observe how the child worked at coming to terms with such issues as anatomical differences, the difference between thought and action, and his annoyance at his parents’ inability to provide him with the whole truth about birth. However, we have to wonder whether an important outcome of this analysis was to bring “Little Hans” and his father closer so that the Oedipal Complex could be resolved. Prior to the phobia, Max Graff seemed to be a somewhat absent father. Identification with the father is an important part of resolving an Oedipal Conflict and in this case, both Max and Herbert (“Little Hans”) Graff were noted musicologists. I cannot help but believe that those few intense months when the father and son had grappled with “Little Hans’s” phobia, that the treatment helped forge the future development of Herbert, including identification of the son with his father.