Allen Esterson wrote:
Gay endorses Freud's absurd interpretations and dubious claim of a cure in the "Little Hans" case history. And far from the development of the little boy's horse phobia being "something unexplained" as Gay contends, the patient told his father (who reported the boy's conversations and behaviour to Freud who analysed the case by proxy) that he was afraid when a horse-bus came along because he had once seen one such a horse fall down in the street. Nothing so simple. As reported by Gay, Freud concluded that the little boy's "repressed erotic and aggressive wishes were transformed into anxiety, which then fastened on a particular object to be feared and avoided -- this was the horse phobia." This kind of nonsense (and a great deal more) is endorsed by Gay as leading to the successful removal of the phobia. (He fails to mention Freud's passing comment that such phobias in young children frequently disappear spontaneously.)
Is the parallel to "Little Hans" the reason why Watson & Rayner's (1920) Conditioned Emotional Reaction paper is usually called the "Little Albert" study? Watson ends the article with a discussion of how Freud would explain the origin of Albert's phobia.
Ken
--------------------------------------------------------------- Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608 USA ---------------------------------------------------------------
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