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The Wolfman and Other Cases
The new Penguin Freud, under Adam Phillips' general editorship, offers a fantastic opportunity to see Freud in a fresh light.
This endlessly beguiling, suggestive, thought-provoking writer can be appreciated nowhere more vividly than in The Case 'Little Hans', 'The Rat Man', 'The Wolf Man' and 'Some Character Types Met within Psychoanalytic Work.'
383 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1918
44 people are currently reading
799 people want to read
About the author
Sigmund Freud
4,445 books8,520 followersDr. Sigismund Freud (later changed to Sigmund) was a neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, who created an entirely new approach to the understanding of the human personality. He is regarded as one of the most influential—and controversial—minds of the 20th century.
In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children.
Freud developed the theory that humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences against them. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself. In 1900, his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams' was published in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences.
In 1902, Freud was appointed Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna, a post he held until 1938. Although the medical establishment disagreed with many of his theories, a group of pupils and followers began to gather around Freud. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with Carl Jung, a close associate of Freud's, as the president. Jung later broke with Freud and developed his own theories.
After World War One, Freud spent less time in clinical observation and concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and anthropology. In 1923, he published 'The Ego and the Id', which suggested a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the 'superego'.
In 1933, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna.
Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23 September 1939.
In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children.
Freud developed the theory that humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences against them. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself. In 1900, his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams' was published in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences.
In 1902, Freud was appointed Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna, a post he held until 1938. Although the medical establishment disagreed with many of his theories, a group of pupils and followers began to gather around Freud. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with Carl Jung, a close associate of Freud's, as the president. Jung later broke with Freud and developed his own theories.
After World War One, Freud spent less time in clinical observation and concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and anthropology. In 1923, he published 'The Ego and the Id', which suggested a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the 'superego'.
In 1933, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna.
Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23 September 1939.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 19, 2021
freud is schizoposting
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December 4, 2020I have never given a book zero stars before today.
Dull and tendentious at best -- and actively damaging to his patients at worst -- Freud leaps from idea to idea with undisguised, ghoulish glee. At one point the chain is so tenuous as: butterfly wings look like the Roman numeral V, which look like a woman's spread legs, which reminds the patient of that time when he was two years old and he maybe saw his parents having sex (anal, doggy-style -- Freud is very insistent on the position) which is the source of all his adult neuroses.
Even discounting the fact that we're looking back on him with the biases of modern psychiatry, clearly readers at the time were disagreeing with him, and he spends several paragraphs in every chapter weakly refuting his critics. Ignoring the content itself, the structure is so fundamentally deranged that I suspect either a problem with the editing or the translation. The text goes in the most excruciating circles as Freud gnaws on the meagre material he has to offer and spirals further and further into the pale about anal sadism.
Now, I actually really like his ideas. They're fun. And modern psychiatry has drifted so far in its repudiation of him that we no longer care about the childhood traumas and the sexual component of mental illness, which is probably a loss. I've visited the Freud Museum and as a concept, as a historical figure, Freud is undeniably important. But I don't know why I decided to subject myself to the man's actual writing, and from now on will be enforcing the 'life is too short for shitty books' rule with vigour.
(I'm also currently reading a wonderful biography of Nabokov, and coincidentally (or not), VN really hated Freud, and I love him all the more for it.)
Dull and tendentious at best -- and actively damaging to his patients at worst -- Freud leaps from idea to idea with undisguised, ghoulish glee. At one point the chain is so tenuous as: butterfly wings look like the Roman numeral V, which look like a woman's spread legs, which reminds the patient of that time when he was two years old and he maybe saw his parents having sex (anal, doggy-style -- Freud is very insistent on the position) which is the source of all his adult neuroses.
Even discounting the fact that we're looking back on him with the biases of modern psychiatry, clearly readers at the time were disagreeing with him, and he spends several paragraphs in every chapter weakly refuting his critics. Ignoring the content itself, the structure is so fundamentally deranged that I suspect either a problem with the editing or the translation. The text goes in the most excruciating circles as Freud gnaws on the meagre material he has to offer and spirals further and further into the pale about anal sadism.
Now, I actually really like his ideas. They're fun. And modern psychiatry has drifted so far in its repudiation of him that we no longer care about the childhood traumas and the sexual component of mental illness, which is probably a loss. I've visited the Freud Museum and as a concept, as a historical figure, Freud is undeniably important. But I don't know why I decided to subject myself to the man's actual writing, and from now on will be enforcing the 'life is too short for shitty books' rule with vigour.
(I'm also currently reading a wonderful biography of Nabokov, and coincidentally (or not), VN really hated Freud, and I love him all the more for it.)
December 1, 2023
Freud said, “Let’s look inside ourselves, babes.” In doing that, now we all look inside ourselves in everything outside, written, committed. Freud turned the 20th century word into a crystal-clear mirror, more opaque than ever.
March 17, 2018
After the revelations of the last one hundred years, a common Freud reader will likely approach these case histories as innovatively structured novellas based on a true story. Guided by this notion, we have here three works of increasing skill and horror, with an epilogue that the best postmodernist couldn't see coming. In other words, put aside your Edgar Allen and your Lovecraft for the moment, and immerse yourself in gothic Viennese fiction like you've never seen before.
The least of these works is Little Hans, who tires with his insatiable need to talk of his widdler and plops, but it has the neat device of the second-hand narrator and is not to be missed. The Ratman is a queasy affair - in the best way - that will place you, especially if like me you have a history of OCD, in a well-protected but inadequate fetal position; its one weakness is its reliance on a too-familiar Freudian analysis trope. But that's just to prepare you for the Wolfman, which adds a Russian twist to the almost unspeakable dream basis of its narrative, and is steeped in dreadful atmosphere, god bless it. Then comes the epilogue, a sideways summation in the form of an English literature critical analysis of Shakespeare and Ibsen - quite enjoyable.
Preceding this comes an introduction by Gillian Beer, which is too much a summation of the main text but which redeems itself in its last ten pages. And the translator's introduction by Louise Adey Huish is geek paradise.
It's lovely to read all this in the black Penguin Classic edition, with the magnificent cover and the pages that are cheap-feeling but which somehow add to the intimacy and fireside nature of the experience.
The least of these works is Little Hans, who tires with his insatiable need to talk of his widdler and plops, but it has the neat device of the second-hand narrator and is not to be missed. The Ratman is a queasy affair - in the best way - that will place you, especially if like me you have a history of OCD, in a well-protected but inadequate fetal position; its one weakness is its reliance on a too-familiar Freudian analysis trope. But that's just to prepare you for the Wolfman, which adds a Russian twist to the almost unspeakable dream basis of its narrative, and is steeped in dreadful atmosphere, god bless it. Then comes the epilogue, a sideways summation in the form of an English literature critical analysis of Shakespeare and Ibsen - quite enjoyable.
Preceding this comes an introduction by Gillian Beer, which is too much a summation of the main text but which redeems itself in its last ten pages. And the translator's introduction by Louise Adey Huish is geek paradise.
It's lovely to read all this in the black Penguin Classic edition, with the magnificent cover and the pages that are cheap-feeling but which somehow add to the intimacy and fireside nature of the experience.
June 3, 2023
After reading Freud’s “The Wolfman”, I now know where homosexuality comes from. Child masturbation leads to sexual pleasure, then Exhibitionism and voyeurism, then sadomasochistic behaviour, ending with anal erotism and anal sadism and anal masochism. Jung and Freud disagreed with the subconscious. Jung went up past the rational and into the mystical. Freud went down to the genitals and the anus.
Now I know my sexual history after reading Freud. Reading Freud is truly a journey in self discovery…for better or worst.
Now I know my sexual history after reading Freud. Reading Freud is truly a journey in self discovery…for better or worst.
May 4, 2020
What a monster of a book! Anyway, summary time!
Summary
Summary
September 16, 2023
Freud: detective novelist.
He no longer solves crimes, but the charge is still murder. His novels are the distillations of novels.
“The former did not proceed from the latter, but rather the misdemeanor proceeded from the consciousness of guilt.”
Freud: master of the turn of phrase.
Freud: finally unmasks himself and reveals the literary critic beneath.
“It is the poet's art, however, and an economic subtlety, that he does not make his hero express all the secrets of his motivation out loud, leaving nothing to our imagination. In this way he obliges us to supply them ourselves, providing occupation for our intellectual activity, diverting us from critical thought and holding us fast in our identification with his hero. In his place an amateur would give conscious expression to everything he wished to express and then find himself face to face with our cool intelligence in all its freedom of movement, thus making it quite impossible to deepen the illusion any further.”
He no longer solves crimes, but the charge is still murder. His novels are the distillations of novels.
“The former did not proceed from the latter, but rather the misdemeanor proceeded from the consciousness of guilt.”
Freud: master of the turn of phrase.
Freud: finally unmasks himself and reveals the literary critic beneath.
“It is the poet's art, however, and an economic subtlety, that he does not make his hero express all the secrets of his motivation out loud, leaving nothing to our imagination. In this way he obliges us to supply them ourselves, providing occupation for our intellectual activity, diverting us from critical thought and holding us fast in our identification with his hero. In his place an amateur would give conscious expression to everything he wished to express and then find himself face to face with our cool intelligence in all its freedom of movement, thus making it quite impossible to deepen the illusion any further.”
June 30, 2014
Valendo-se de mais falas do paciente num caso - ou casos - bem delineados, Freud utiliza sua proposição teórica para explicar inicialmente dois casos - que aparentemente são muito famosos: o caso do pequeno Hans - Ratman - e o Wolfman. Como li em inglês não sei exatamente como foi traduzido. Mas se encontra no volume 10, das obras completas da Imago.
Sugiro fortemente a leitura dos outros trabalhos iniciais, já que este é aplicado e o conhecimento básico da hipótese explicativa - ainda se valendo da permanência na incompletude infantil e processos de sexualidade mal alojados em algum sentido - para compreensão dos casos.
Sugiro para os alunos que se interessam pela área e aquisição da percepção de como um conhecimento básico pode ser alastrado para a fala em setting terapêutico - na psicanálise freudiana.
Sugiro fortemente a leitura dos outros trabalhos iniciais, já que este é aplicado e o conhecimento básico da hipótese explicativa - ainda se valendo da permanência na incompletude infantil e processos de sexualidade mal alojados em algum sentido - para compreensão dos casos.
Sugiro para os alunos que se interessam pela área e aquisição da percepção de como um conhecimento básico pode ser alastrado para a fala em setting terapêutico - na psicanálise freudiana.
October 19, 2018
This book was a horrible, disgusting experience that I could not put down. Very interesting, almost addictive, but absolute disgust at any moment. The case studies were so based on the relationship between inherent sexual tendencies of man and dreams, which Freud believed contained "latent content". Would recommend this to anyone interested in either Freud himself, or for a class talking about Freudian ideas and dream theory.
May 20, 2009
Definitely interesting, if for no other reason than seeing Freud's incredible hubris in action is something else.
Would have loved more case-history, less "this is why i'm right, see!!!!" and/or a bit of background to help unravel Freud's self-love (not THAT variety, though he'd be happy to discuss it with you...)
Would have loved more case-history, less "this is why i'm right, see!!!!" and/or a bit of background to help unravel Freud's self-love (not THAT variety, though he'd be happy to discuss it with you...)
December 19, 2025
12/18/2025
1. Some people have psychological or physical disorders that are characterized by sexually inappropriate behavior.
Friday, December 5, 2025
2. Some women have had one or more ovaries removed in surgery, which can cause abnormal behavior. This is an advanced surgery that requires a skillful surgeon.
3. Some people display negative behavior because their physical state is very poor.
4. The boy’s parents explained to him what the biological purpose of sex was, what it meant to have sexual dysfunction, and indicated that it was okay to have sexual dysfunction, and that you shouldn’t let it overcome your life.
5. Many men who display abnormal behavior, excessive confusion, or sexual deviance, have a serious psychological disorder.
1. The woman dressed like a man, had a man's haircut, and she also knew how to behave like a man.
2. The man dressed up like a clown, and also knew how to wear makeup.
3. I told him don't go too close to the ledge on the roof, because you could fall over. But his repressed desires to be daring were overwhelming.
4. Omitted.
5. Teach children that just as they grow, develop, and go through phases, their family also grows, develops, and goes through phases.
6. Teach children that as they may have gotten everything they wanted as young boys or girls, they cannot get everything they want as they grow older.
7. When children are faced with the realities of life, and how they will survive as they grow into adults.
8. Frustration and fear at the upcoming birth of a new baby sister.
9. Defiance in children, or when children defy their parents.
10. Quick displays of aggression and hostility in males.
11. The stork is very slow and methodical about how it picks up and puts down stones with its beak onto its nest.
12. When people have difficulty adjusting to city life.
13. Phobias and anxiety that accompany city life can be numerous.
14. Abnormal sexual behavior may be able to be controlled by counseling and medication.
15. The man told his psychiatrist his experiences, then his psychiatrist interpreted them in his office.
16. It was common for the psychiatrist to have his clients' paperwork, so that he could easily pull up information about his client.
17. The man spent a lot of time around women, and other people thought that this was a problem.
18. Men are known to compete for the love of a woman.
19. In psychiatry, there are exceptional individuals, who are unique for different reasons.
20. In counseling, sometimes subjects repeat themselves.
21. After counseling and scenarios at home with his family, the patient was cured of his psychiatric disorder.
22. “I know that I am assuming a great deal as regards the reasoning powers of a child of four or five, but I am allowing myself to be guided by recent discoveries…”
23. The child spoke at a very high pitch.
24. “What influence tipped the scales, in the situation we have described…is a difficult question to answer and could no doubt only be decided by comparing this case with several other similar analyses...”
25. The man was a lot like a woman, even in his sex life.
26. The woman was very masculine in her life.
27. One of the men was feminine, and one of the men was masculine.
28. The horse carriages of NYC date back to old towns in Italy. The Italians had a culture around horses, and sometimes they would even play games of horsey with their family.
29. Italians sometimes had irrational fears, or phobias about horses.
30. Some games are purely fantasy, and have no equivalent in reality.
31. "A boy can have children, you know?” “No, a boy can’t have children.”
32. Sigmund Freud had a patient who was an old woman who had old, used underwear that she would regularly wash in her sink and dry at home.
33. The man's psychiatrist regularly asked him about his sex life, and then interpreted these comments in relation to his treatment.
34. Human sometimes make up psychological problems about themselves, which are really not true psychological problems that they have.
35. Examine patient's relationships with the opposite sex.
36. Examine patient's level of experience and wisdom in life.
37. "He follows some of my ideas, but some of them get past him."
38. Obsessive compulsion with cosmetic surgery and liposuction.
39. Indirect suicide, or suicide which occurs over a great deal of time.
40. Obsessive compulsive shows of excessive love and affection.
41. Omitted.
42. Obsessive compulsive shows of excessive mourning at funerals.
43. Obsessive compulsive shows of excessive sympathy for others.
44. Repressing or forgetting past criminal behavior.
45. The surprise thought scenario - when you’re with someone and surprise, totally irrelevant thoughts come up in your discussion.
46. The man looked like he needed to bathe more regularly and shave more regularly.
47. He claimed that his memory was mostly dreams, hallucinations, and visions, instead of realistic events.
48. His family regularly asked him about his experience in the army.
49. Sudden expressions of rage or anger displayed by some psychiatric patients.
50. Using evidence and other information to prove a case against someone.
51. Using the credibility, wisdom, and experience of one person over another person to judge a case.
52. The man was willing to fight, rather than being viewed as weak. He didn’t want his father or cousins to beat him up, and he didn’t want to lose his intellectual beliefs or his material possessions.
53. It is difficult for some people to answer a direct question directly. —Sigmund Freud
54.Some people display defiance of authority figures in police or government.
55. Adults should act like wise and experienced men and women.
56. Adults should display wise and experienced behavior in their relationships with others.
57. The man had a fantasy with the connection between science fiction and real life. This was a detachment from reality.
58. A more far-reaching attempt to interpret the patient's dreams on this subject produced the clearest indications of a poetic fantasy, which we might term epic in scope...
59. Scientific inquiry on the basis of psychoanalysis is at present merely a by-product of therapeutic endeavour, after all, and for that reason the yield is often greatest in the case of patients whose treatment is unsuccessful.
60. The man was fond of bringing up childhood memories in his discussions.
61. Problems with compulsive thinking and compulsive ideas.
62. You may not be mentally ill, if you have attended mental health classes for years, and your classmates believe that you are a normal person.
63. The other man was tough on him, since the man had a high-pitched voice, was "half-man and half-woman," and not a real man.
64. The patient had displayed a psychological disorder, or an obsessive-compulsive neurosis, characterized by thoughts which displayed a displacement with reality.
65. The patient's neurosis included distorted thoughts about reality.
66. The patient's neurosis, characterized by a displacement with reality, could have caused the patient to harm himself or others.
67. The patient's neurosis included childlike behaviors.
68. The patient would sometimes become fixated on little sleights of the hand when engaged in discussions.
69. The patient would sometimes laugh and make irrational jokes.
70. The patient's neurosis was characterized by severe mood swings.
71. The doctor had tried to uncover the root of his patient's childlike behavior.
72. "As I made clear earlier, in this disorder repression does not take place through amnesia, but through the destruction of causal connections consequent upon the withdrawal of the accompanying emotion."
73. "It would seem that these repressed relationships retain a certain warning power - which I have compared elsewhere to an endopsychic perception - so that they are made to enter the outside world by means of projection and there bear witness to what has failed to occur in the psychic sphere."
74. Omitted.
75. "He was obliged to recall what had been forgotten and to establish what he had neglected to find out."
76. "The particular fondness that the patient suffering from obsessive-compulsive neurosis feels for uncertainty and doubt provides him with a motive...Such topics are pre-eminently paternity, life expectancy, the afterlife and memory - to which we generally give credence without possessing the faintest proof of its reliability."
77. "Obsessive-compulsive neurosis make substantial use of the uncertainty of memory in symptom formation; the role played by life expectancy and the afterlife in the content of the patient's thinking is something we shall shortly discover."
78. "First, though, as the most appropriate transition to that topic, I shall discuss the characteristic tendency to superstition in our patient, my earlier reference to which will no doubt have disconcerted more than one reader."
79. "I am referring to the omnipotence he claims for his thoughts and feelings, his good and evil wishes. It is certainly no small temptation to declare this idea to be a delusion that goes far beyond the limits characteristic of obsessive-compulsive neurosis; except that I have encountered this same conviction in another patient suffering from compulsive disorders who has long since recovered and now leads a normal, active life, and in fact all those suffering from obsessive-compulsive neurosis conduct themselves as if they shared this conviction"
80. "The mother and father taught their son how to correct his abnormal behaviors. The psychiatrist also helped them with this."
81. Sigmund Freud and Oliver Sacks were psychiatrists who kept detailed case notes about their patients and their paychological problems and their abnormal behaviors. Freud and Sacks also suggest that everyone has abnormal behavior: doctors, teachers, lawyers, bankers, police officers, etc.
82. In treating one of Freud's patients, the family used the scene from Little Red Riding Hood, where, in the end, the big bad wolf dresses up in grandmother's clothes, and sleeps in grandmother's bed.
83. Sigmund Freud discusses physical intimidation.
84. Due to surgery, some people do not have a sex drive.
85. Some people’s sex drive declines over time.
86. Sometimes, the father plays a mysterious part in the child’s life.
87. What is considered a sexual act to some, is considered totally normal to others.
88. His family and psychiatrist would deliberately trigger him, for a psychoanalytical experiment.
89. He was arrested on the basis of one minuscule piece of evidence.
90. Paranoia was also a factor in his arrest.
91. Many people in his family also had psychological problems that would often arise.
92. Several factors caused his arrest.
93. Why couldn’t his family just act normally?
94. The hero had a beautiful mind, his thoughts and internal voice were brilliant.
95. Declaring independence from one’s parents as a behavior of many human beings. This can be painful but it is necessary for normal adults.
96. Omitted.
97. Discusses the differences between the generations.
98. He was a rich man, but he didn’t know how to wisely manage his finances.
99. When he died, his money was divided between his mother and his older sister.
100. Discusses differences between children and their parents: ideological, social, etc.
101. Displaying abnormal behavior at night, and displaying bouts of shouting and aggression at night, as signs of neurosis in psychiatric patients.
102. Being in an irrational dreamlike, or fantasy state, as a sign of neurosis in psychiatric patients.
103. A person should not display anger or aggression toward other people.
104. Irrational obsession about the body movements of other people.
105. Irrational obsession about getting other people to talk when they don’t want to.
106. Irrational obsession about wanting to control other people.
107. Irrational obsession about different events in other people’s lives.
108. Irrational obsession about rushing a person and trying to make them behave faster.
109. Irrational obsession about involving several family members in the experiences in your life
Thank you,
🌹🌹Toren
www.scholarlyinformation.com
1. Some people have psychological or physical disorders that are characterized by sexually inappropriate behavior.
Friday, December 5, 2025
2. Some women have had one or more ovaries removed in surgery, which can cause abnormal behavior. This is an advanced surgery that requires a skillful surgeon.
3. Some people display negative behavior because their physical state is very poor.
4. The boy’s parents explained to him what the biological purpose of sex was, what it meant to have sexual dysfunction, and indicated that it was okay to have sexual dysfunction, and that you shouldn’t let it overcome your life.
5. Many men who display abnormal behavior, excessive confusion, or sexual deviance, have a serious psychological disorder.
1. The woman dressed like a man, had a man's haircut, and she also knew how to behave like a man.
2. The man dressed up like a clown, and also knew how to wear makeup.
3. I told him don't go too close to the ledge on the roof, because you could fall over. But his repressed desires to be daring were overwhelming.
4. Omitted.
5. Teach children that just as they grow, develop, and go through phases, their family also grows, develops, and goes through phases.
6. Teach children that as they may have gotten everything they wanted as young boys or girls, they cannot get everything they want as they grow older.
7. When children are faced with the realities of life, and how they will survive as they grow into adults.
8. Frustration and fear at the upcoming birth of a new baby sister.
9. Defiance in children, or when children defy their parents.
10. Quick displays of aggression and hostility in males.
11. The stork is very slow and methodical about how it picks up and puts down stones with its beak onto its nest.
12. When people have difficulty adjusting to city life.
13. Phobias and anxiety that accompany city life can be numerous.
14. Abnormal sexual behavior may be able to be controlled by counseling and medication.
15. The man told his psychiatrist his experiences, then his psychiatrist interpreted them in his office.
16. It was common for the psychiatrist to have his clients' paperwork, so that he could easily pull up information about his client.
17. The man spent a lot of time around women, and other people thought that this was a problem.
18. Men are known to compete for the love of a woman.
19. In psychiatry, there are exceptional individuals, who are unique for different reasons.
20. In counseling, sometimes subjects repeat themselves.
21. After counseling and scenarios at home with his family, the patient was cured of his psychiatric disorder.
22. “I know that I am assuming a great deal as regards the reasoning powers of a child of four or five, but I am allowing myself to be guided by recent discoveries…”
23. The child spoke at a very high pitch.
24. “What influence tipped the scales, in the situation we have described…is a difficult question to answer and could no doubt only be decided by comparing this case with several other similar analyses...”
25. The man was a lot like a woman, even in his sex life.
26. The woman was very masculine in her life.
27. One of the men was feminine, and one of the men was masculine.
28. The horse carriages of NYC date back to old towns in Italy. The Italians had a culture around horses, and sometimes they would even play games of horsey with their family.
29. Italians sometimes had irrational fears, or phobias about horses.
30. Some games are purely fantasy, and have no equivalent in reality.
31. "A boy can have children, you know?” “No, a boy can’t have children.”
32. Sigmund Freud had a patient who was an old woman who had old, used underwear that she would regularly wash in her sink and dry at home.
33. The man's psychiatrist regularly asked him about his sex life, and then interpreted these comments in relation to his treatment.
34. Human sometimes make up psychological problems about themselves, which are really not true psychological problems that they have.
35. Examine patient's relationships with the opposite sex.
36. Examine patient's level of experience and wisdom in life.
37. "He follows some of my ideas, but some of them get past him."
38. Obsessive compulsion with cosmetic surgery and liposuction.
39. Indirect suicide, or suicide which occurs over a great deal of time.
40. Obsessive compulsive shows of excessive love and affection.
41. Omitted.
42. Obsessive compulsive shows of excessive mourning at funerals.
43. Obsessive compulsive shows of excessive sympathy for others.
44. Repressing or forgetting past criminal behavior.
45. The surprise thought scenario - when you’re with someone and surprise, totally irrelevant thoughts come up in your discussion.
46. The man looked like he needed to bathe more regularly and shave more regularly.
47. He claimed that his memory was mostly dreams, hallucinations, and visions, instead of realistic events.
48. His family regularly asked him about his experience in the army.
49. Sudden expressions of rage or anger displayed by some psychiatric patients.
50. Using evidence and other information to prove a case against someone.
51. Using the credibility, wisdom, and experience of one person over another person to judge a case.
52. The man was willing to fight, rather than being viewed as weak. He didn’t want his father or cousins to beat him up, and he didn’t want to lose his intellectual beliefs or his material possessions.
53. It is difficult for some people to answer a direct question directly. —Sigmund Freud
54.Some people display defiance of authority figures in police or government.
55. Adults should act like wise and experienced men and women.
56. Adults should display wise and experienced behavior in their relationships with others.
57. The man had a fantasy with the connection between science fiction and real life. This was a detachment from reality.
58. A more far-reaching attempt to interpret the patient's dreams on this subject produced the clearest indications of a poetic fantasy, which we might term epic in scope...
59. Scientific inquiry on the basis of psychoanalysis is at present merely a by-product of therapeutic endeavour, after all, and for that reason the yield is often greatest in the case of patients whose treatment is unsuccessful.
60. The man was fond of bringing up childhood memories in his discussions.
61. Problems with compulsive thinking and compulsive ideas.
62. You may not be mentally ill, if you have attended mental health classes for years, and your classmates believe that you are a normal person.
63. The other man was tough on him, since the man had a high-pitched voice, was "half-man and half-woman," and not a real man.
64. The patient had displayed a psychological disorder, or an obsessive-compulsive neurosis, characterized by thoughts which displayed a displacement with reality.
65. The patient's neurosis included distorted thoughts about reality.
66. The patient's neurosis, characterized by a displacement with reality, could have caused the patient to harm himself or others.
67. The patient's neurosis included childlike behaviors.
68. The patient would sometimes become fixated on little sleights of the hand when engaged in discussions.
69. The patient would sometimes laugh and make irrational jokes.
70. The patient's neurosis was characterized by severe mood swings.
71. The doctor had tried to uncover the root of his patient's childlike behavior.
72. "As I made clear earlier, in this disorder repression does not take place through amnesia, but through the destruction of causal connections consequent upon the withdrawal of the accompanying emotion."
73. "It would seem that these repressed relationships retain a certain warning power - which I have compared elsewhere to an endopsychic perception - so that they are made to enter the outside world by means of projection and there bear witness to what has failed to occur in the psychic sphere."
74. Omitted.
75. "He was obliged to recall what had been forgotten and to establish what he had neglected to find out."
76. "The particular fondness that the patient suffering from obsessive-compulsive neurosis feels for uncertainty and doubt provides him with a motive...Such topics are pre-eminently paternity, life expectancy, the afterlife and memory - to which we generally give credence without possessing the faintest proof of its reliability."
77. "Obsessive-compulsive neurosis make substantial use of the uncertainty of memory in symptom formation; the role played by life expectancy and the afterlife in the content of the patient's thinking is something we shall shortly discover."
78. "First, though, as the most appropriate transition to that topic, I shall discuss the characteristic tendency to superstition in our patient, my earlier reference to which will no doubt have disconcerted more than one reader."
79. "I am referring to the omnipotence he claims for his thoughts and feelings, his good and evil wishes. It is certainly no small temptation to declare this idea to be a delusion that goes far beyond the limits characteristic of obsessive-compulsive neurosis; except that I have encountered this same conviction in another patient suffering from compulsive disorders who has long since recovered and now leads a normal, active life, and in fact all those suffering from obsessive-compulsive neurosis conduct themselves as if they shared this conviction"
80. "The mother and father taught their son how to correct his abnormal behaviors. The psychiatrist also helped them with this."
81. Sigmund Freud and Oliver Sacks were psychiatrists who kept detailed case notes about their patients and their paychological problems and their abnormal behaviors. Freud and Sacks also suggest that everyone has abnormal behavior: doctors, teachers, lawyers, bankers, police officers, etc.
82. In treating one of Freud's patients, the family used the scene from Little Red Riding Hood, where, in the end, the big bad wolf dresses up in grandmother's clothes, and sleeps in grandmother's bed.
83. Sigmund Freud discusses physical intimidation.
84. Due to surgery, some people do not have a sex drive.
85. Some people’s sex drive declines over time.
86. Sometimes, the father plays a mysterious part in the child’s life.
87. What is considered a sexual act to some, is considered totally normal to others.
88. His family and psychiatrist would deliberately trigger him, for a psychoanalytical experiment.
89. He was arrested on the basis of one minuscule piece of evidence.
90. Paranoia was also a factor in his arrest.
91. Many people in his family also had psychological problems that would often arise.
92. Several factors caused his arrest.
93. Why couldn’t his family just act normally?
94. The hero had a beautiful mind, his thoughts and internal voice were brilliant.
95. Declaring independence from one’s parents as a behavior of many human beings. This can be painful but it is necessary for normal adults.
96. Omitted.
97. Discusses the differences between the generations.
98. He was a rich man, but he didn’t know how to wisely manage his finances.
99. When he died, his money was divided between his mother and his older sister.
100. Discusses differences between children and their parents: ideological, social, etc.
101. Displaying abnormal behavior at night, and displaying bouts of shouting and aggression at night, as signs of neurosis in psychiatric patients.
102. Being in an irrational dreamlike, or fantasy state, as a sign of neurosis in psychiatric patients.
103. A person should not display anger or aggression toward other people.
104. Irrational obsession about the body movements of other people.
105. Irrational obsession about getting other people to talk when they don’t want to.
106. Irrational obsession about wanting to control other people.
107. Irrational obsession about different events in other people’s lives.
108. Irrational obsession about rushing a person and trying to make them behave faster.
109. Irrational obsession about involving several family members in the experiences in your life
Thank you,
🌹🌹Toren
www.scholarlyinformation.com
October 23, 2020
Two stars is being a bit generous.
I wish I hadn’t had to finish this. A few flashes of insight but mostly patriarchal nonsense. Castration complexes, penis envy, Oedipus... the guy was obsessed. And this book is rife with a certain vision of child sexuality that is deeply distasteful now. Particularly in light of his treatment of his own daughter. All very dubious.
That said, there’s a great legacy we have to thank Freud for. That much is obvious. The idea of the unconscious, of the mind as a deep and paradoxical well. The concept of the talking cure and the patience that requires. The beauty and brilliance of dreams.
The case studies are more readable than the theory, when he’s delving deep into the analysis. Little Hans’ case is convoluted and boring. The Ratman had some interesting stuff about obsessive compulsive thinking. The Wolfman was utter drivel. I couldn’t really follow it because I was so bored but I think the guy apparently had all these neuroses that stemmed from him maybe having seen his parents doing it doggy style at the age of 18 months. But even Freud conceded that might not have happened... just absolute dog plops.
Some slightly more interesting stuff about Lady Macbeth at the end, but not really worth it.
I wish I hadn’t had to finish this. A few flashes of insight but mostly patriarchal nonsense. Castration complexes, penis envy, Oedipus... the guy was obsessed. And this book is rife with a certain vision of child sexuality that is deeply distasteful now. Particularly in light of his treatment of his own daughter. All very dubious.
That said, there’s a great legacy we have to thank Freud for. That much is obvious. The idea of the unconscious, of the mind as a deep and paradoxical well. The concept of the talking cure and the patience that requires. The beauty and brilliance of dreams.
The case studies are more readable than the theory, when he’s delving deep into the analysis. Little Hans’ case is convoluted and boring. The Ratman had some interesting stuff about obsessive compulsive thinking. The Wolfman was utter drivel. I couldn’t really follow it because I was so bored but I think the guy apparently had all these neuroses that stemmed from him maybe having seen his parents doing it doggy style at the age of 18 months. But even Freud conceded that might not have happened... just absolute dog plops.
Some slightly more interesting stuff about Lady Macbeth at the end, but not really worth it.
May 12, 2017
2.5/5.
An interesting and thought-provoking book, but unfortunately that wasn't enough supersede my dislike of it and how angry it made me sometimes with his conclusions--I just really don't agree with Freud at all, no matter how fascinating it is to follow his logic.
Still, I'm glad I read it! I can now feel like I read a substantial amount of Freud and can cross it off my list.
An interesting and thought-provoking book, but unfortunately that wasn't enough supersede my dislike of it and how angry it made me sometimes with his conclusions--I just really don't agree with Freud at all, no matter how fascinating it is to follow his logic.
Still, I'm glad I read it! I can now feel like I read a substantial amount of Freud and can cross it off my list.
December 31, 2020
I really enjoyed the structures of each case although the only case I found particularly interesting was the first one (little Hans and his fear of horses). Classic, solid Freudian analysis and a good starting point for anyone interesting in psychoanalysis.
February 8, 2025
If you read alongside Peter Brooks’ essay “Fictions of the Wolfman: Freud and Narrative Understanding,” you will have a great time. If you don’t, you’ll likely have a whole lot to say about Freud’s absolute insanity on the page.
April 11, 2021
the narratives of these patients' lives and woes are as gripping and psychotically energetic as anything in Thomas Bernhard - but Freud's long-winded analyses of the cases, not so much
November 16, 2022
The difference between it and its Penguin Modern edition is that this one doesnt present the footnotes. Well, that will be a problem for some people. Whatever, the design is really beautiful.
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January 25, 2025I’ve never read so much about the male anatomy in my life
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August 6, 2025What makes Freud so interesting to me is that he was born to be a brilliant literary critic but somehow insisted on psychoanalysis. I respect him…not as a psychoanalyst, but as a pervert.
January 5, 2026
Wild how this was deemed acceptable!
September 3, 2018
I thought Freud was full of shit by spending so much time talking about how psychoanalysis could cure constipation, but I spoke about it with my therapist and she said it was legit... I'm still skeptical, but there you go. If you're a bit constipated, get 'in conversation with your anus' and, according to Freud, your problem will be solved.
January 11, 2016
My interest and understanding seemed to go down as the page numbers ticked up in this book. Either I don't know enough about psychoanalysis and Freud's theories or he makes some ambitious leaps analytically bolstered by the confidence of hindsight. What at first appeared somewhat logical became belaboringly muddled and complicated to me in most of his case notes. Does one take much more from these cases other than repression may lead to neuroses which manifest in wonderfully convoluted, tangential streams of sublimated symbolism and inappropriate behaviors? Perhaps I was hoping for more of his theory. Or maybe I'm still coming to grips with not having killed my father, nor slept with my mother...
April 5, 2007
Love him or hate him, you have to admit: Freud was an interesting cat. And damned if he didn't meet some interesting people on his journeys through the subconscious. This is like a travelogue of some of his most curious encounters. I wrote a paper for a Bert Cohler class about "Phobia in a Five-Year-Old-Boy" (pp. 1-122) and Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantmentcalled "Bedtime for Little Hans".
Well, I thought it was funny.
Well, I thought it was funny.
August 7, 2009
read this famous "history of an infantile neurosis" in v.17 of the standard edition of the complete psychological works of SF along with a handful of shorter works including "the 'uncanny'" (essay on aesthetics), "a child is being beaten" (essay on masochism) and an interesting essay that analyzes an episode from goethe's "dichtung und wahrheit"
March 24, 2013
Wonderful stuff. A great demonstration of Freud's method in action, and skilfully written. It reads more like Gothic Horror than science. But then, these days it's best to view Freud in literary terms rather than scientific - after all, isn't psychoanalysis best seen as a way of telling stories about our own minds?
December 8, 2016
Whatever else you say about Freud, he's usually an interesting writer and that's certainly true here as he describes the cases of three patients that he treated. The way in which he applies his theories to the patient's symptoms is fascinating, though it sometimes seems a bit of a stretch.
December 31, 2011
Nietzsche lite.
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October 28, 2012the wolf man was a fag
April 18, 2016
i read 100 straight pages about dicks!!! i think freud was projecting his own nascent homosexuality onto his diagnosis of the patient
October 24, 2023
You need a recording of this method in action, even if you disagree with it. Perception and empathy.
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