te sex parent. This makes them view their same sex parent as a rival and unconsciously they feel hostile which turns to guilt and so they try to identify with their same sex parent. The boy does this if fear of being castrated by his father. Freud uses this theory as a way of interpreting situations, emotions and feelings when he psychoanalyses patients. He believed that if at any particular psychosexual stage the demands for this sexual gratification were not met, when the child became adult it would demand gratification for the activity of that stage leading to a fixation or neurosis. However Freuds case studies were all based upon adults, with one exception (below), leaving his theory in big trouble, as studies of adults can not contribute to a valid theory of child development.Freud found evidence to support his theory when he analysed a phobia in a 5-year-old boy. This is called the case of little Hans. Hans had a phobia of being bitten by horses, especially ones that were white, with black around the mouth and wearing blinkers. Freud interpreted this as Hans fear of being castrated by his father. One time when Hans saw a horse collapse in the street he was very frightened. Freud said that when Hans saw the horse collapse, he felt guilty and afraid as it reminded him about his death wish against his father. Freud believed that Hans saw the horse as representing his father because his father had a moustache, which resembled the black part around the horses mouth, and he also wore glasses, which resembled the blinkers, that the horse wore. Also he thought that the things that Hans used to say were a good indication of this. For example, one time Hans said Daddy dont trot away from me, suggesting connotations that his father was like a horse, and on another occasion he said Daddy you are lovely, youre so white which suggested that Hans saw his father as being white like the horse that he feared. Freud thought that as the ...
