Chapter
From the History of an Infantile Neurosis
Aus der Geschichte einer infantilen Neurose
Freud's case history of the patient known as the "Wolf Man", a young Russian aristocrat. Rather than recounting the adult illness and its treatment as a whole, Freud concentrates on the infantile neurosis that lay behind it. The centre of the account is a childhood dream of white wolves sitting in a tree, which Freud traces back to the child's sight of parental intercourse, the primal scene, at the age of one and a half; the scene, he argues, acquired its meaning and its traumatic force only later, by deferred action. The case also examines the boy's animal phobia, his religious obsessions, his anal erotism and his castration anxiety, and reports Freud's decision to set a time limit to the treatment. Written in 1914 and published in 1918, it serves at the same time as a defence of infantile sexuality against the revisions of Jung and Adler.
Main ideas
- The adult patient's illness is approached through the infantile neurosis that preceded it.
- A childhood dream of white wolves in a tree is the key to the case.
- Freud reconstructs from the dream the child's sight of parental intercourse, the primal scene, at one and a half.
- The primal scene became meaningful and traumatic only later, by deferred action.
- The case discusses an animal phobia, religious obsessions, anal erotism and castration anxiety.
- Freud reports setting a time limit to the treatment.
- Written in 1914, the case defends infantile sexuality against Jung and Adler.
What it shows
- 1918
Sigmund Freud introduced Primal scene
In the Wolf Man case Freud reconstructs from the wolf dream a scene of parental intercourse observed at the age of one and a half and understood only later, names it the primal scene (Urszene), and asks whether such scenes are memories or primal fantasies.
- 1918
Sigmund Freud developed Afterwardsness
The Wolf Man case is Freud's fullest published working of Nachträglichkeit: the scene observed at one and a half acquires its meaning and its traumatic force only when it is revived, in the dream at the age of four, by a sexual understanding the child did not have before.