TY - JOUR
T1 - Little Hans and the thought police
T2 - The 'policeman fantasies' as the first reported supervisory transference fantasies
AU - Wakefield, Jerome C.
PY - 2008/2
Y1 - 2008/2
N2 - The 'policeman fantasies' in Freud's case of Little Hans, famous for being Freud's most direct evidence for specifically sexual oedipal desire by Hans for his mother, are reconsidered. The Hans case is the first recorded instance of psychoanalytic supervision, and recent studies suggest that it is common for patients in supervised treatment to experience fantasies about the supervisor. It is argued that the policeman fantasies are the first recorded instances of such transference fantasies about psychoanalytic supervision and the patient-therapist-supervisor triangle. The explanatory power of this interpretation is supported by the nuances of the features of the fantasies themselves, as well as by the context in which they occurred that might serve as day residues'. Moreover, this interpretation provides an answer to the central mystery of the two fantasies, which goes unaddressed by Freud's oedipal interpretation. Who is the policeman?
AB - The 'policeman fantasies' in Freud's case of Little Hans, famous for being Freud's most direct evidence for specifically sexual oedipal desire by Hans for his mother, are reconsidered. The Hans case is the first recorded instance of psychoanalytic supervision, and recent studies suggest that it is common for patients in supervised treatment to experience fantasies about the supervisor. It is argued that the policeman fantasies are the first recorded instances of such transference fantasies about psychoanalytic supervision and the patient-therapist-supervisor triangle. The explanatory power of this interpretation is supported by the nuances of the features of the fantasies themselves, as well as by the context in which they occurred that might serve as day residues'. Moreover, this interpretation provides an answer to the central mystery of the two fantasies, which goes unaddressed by Freud's oedipal interpretation. Who is the policeman?
KW - History of psychoanalysis
KW - Little Hans
KW - Oedipal complex
KW - Supervision
KW - Transference
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=40749158757&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=40749158757&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2007.00007.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2007.00007.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 18290792
AN - SCOPUS:40749158757
SN - 0020-7578
VL - 89
SP - 71
EP - 88
JO - International Journal of Psychoanalysis
JF - International Journal of Psychoanalysis
IS - 1
ER -