When his sexuality begins to make itself felt in infantile masturbation, the preoedipal triangle (mother- child- Imaginary phallus) is transformed from being Hans's source of enjoyment into something that provokes anxiety in him. Lacan argues that Hans develops the horse phobia because his Real father fails to intervene as the agent of castration, which is his proper role in the Oedipus Complex. The horse thus functions not as the equivalent of a sole signified but as a signifier which has no univocal sense and is displaced onto different signifieds in turn Īt each of these different moments, Lacan argues, the horse represents a different person in Hans's life. Lacan points out the extremely diverse ways in which Hans describes the feared horse at different moments of his phobia for example, at one point Hans is afraid that a horse will bite him and at another moment that a horse will fall down. However, rather than identifying the phobic object as a representative of the father, as Freud does, Lacan argues that the fundamental characteristic of the phobic object is that it does not simply represent one person but represents different people in turn. Lacan, in his seminar of 1956-7, offers a detailed reading of the case of Little Hans, and proposes his own view of phobia.įollowing Freud, he stresses the difference between phobia and anxiety: anxiety appears first, and the phobia is a defensive formation which turns the anxiety into fear by focusing it on a specific object. In his case study of Hans, Freud distinguished between the initial onset of anxiety (which was not attached to any object) and the ensuing fear which was focused specifically on horses only the latter constituted the phobia proper.įreud argued that the anxiety was the transformation of sexual excitement generated in Hans by his relationship with his mother, and that the horses represented his father who Hans feared would punish him. Shortly before his fifth birthday, Hans developed a violent fear of horses and became unwilling to go outdoors lest he encounter one in the street. These avoidance strategies may become so elaborate that the subject's life is severely restricted.įreud's most important contribution to the study of phobias concerned a young boy whom he dubbed Little Hans. Those who suffer from a phobia experience Anxiety if they encounter the phobic object or are placed in the feared situation, and develop 'avoidance strategies' so as to prevent this from happening. A phobia is usually defined in psychiatry as an extreme fear of a particular object (such as an animal) or a particular situation (such as leaving the home).
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