Changes
The LinkTitles extension automatically added links to existing pages (<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://github.com/bovender/LinkTitles">https://github.com/bovender/LinkTitles</a>).
The '''Rat Man''' was a pseudonym given by [[Sigmund Freud]] to his [[patient ]] [[Ernst Lanzer]] (1878 —1914), to protect his anonymity when his [[case ]] study was published.
== Some Remarks on a Case of Obsessive-compulsive Neurosis ==
The case study was published in 1909 in [[German]]. [[Freud ]] saw the [[Ratman ]] for [[about ]] a year, and considered the [[treatment ]] a success.
The patient was presented with [[obsession]]al [[thoughts ]] and with behaviors which he felt compelled to carry out. The [[thought ]] for which the case received its [[name ]] was the [[idea ]] that a [[torture ]] he had heard about from a military officer having to do with rats eating away at one's [[body ]] might happen to someone who was dear to him, specifically his [[father ]] or the [[woman ]] he admired. Freud theorized that this and similar thoughts were produced by conflicts consisting of the combination of loving and [[aggressive ]] impulses relating to these [[people]].
The Ratman also often defended himself against his own thoughts. He would have a [[secret ]] thought that he wished his father would die so he could inherit all of his [[money]], and then he would [[shame ]] himself by fantasizing that his father would die and leave him [[nothing]]. The patient even goes so far as to fantasize about marrying Freud's daughter so that Freud would have more money.
In addition, the [[symptoms ]] were believed to keep the patient from needing to make difficult decisions in his current [[life]], and to ward off the [[anxiety ]] which would be involved in experiencing the angry and aggressive impulses directly. The patient's older sister and father had died, and these losses were considered, along with his suicidal thoughts and his tendency to [[form ]] [[verbal ]] [[associations ]] and [[symbolic ]] [[meanings]].
Freud believed that they began with [[sexual ]] experiences of infancy, in [[particular ]] harsh [[punishment ]] for [[childhood ]] [[masturbation]], and the vicissitudes of sexual curiosity. In the case study Freud elaborates on his [[terms ]] '[[rationalization]]', '[[doubt]]', and '[[displacement]]'
In a footnote Freud laments that long term follow-up of this case was not possible, because the patient was killed in [[World ]] War I.
Rat Man, 77-78, 87-89, 235-238 [[Ecrits ]]
== See also ==
*[[Sigmund Freud]]
