Reading Little Hans: A New Podcast Series

By Kate Merritt and Manuel Gabbert

Everyday Analysis is delighted to announce that we are hosting a new podcast series, hosted by Kate Merritt and Manuel Gabbert. It starts with a 5-part exploration into one of Freud's most significant case studies: the fascinating case of Little Hans.

Back in 19xx, little Hans no longer wants to leave the house as he is afraid a horse will bite him. Freud concludes that little Hans is fond of his mother and wants to replace his father. But is there more to his phobia? Kate and Manuel read the little Hans case through the lens of Lacan and his 4th seminar on the Object Relation. We will learn that, in working through the castration complex, Hans is struggling with the lack in the Other and to find an opening for himself in it.

In this 5-part series, Kate and Manuel discuss Freud's famous case of Little Hans and his neuroticisms and perversions. It is a guide for students, a casual and expert analysis and a fascinating read through one of the most important texts in the history of psychoanalysis.

Episode One

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Episode Two

Hans’ father had been corresponding with Freud for about a year before Hans' phobia emerged. This was part of Freud’s broader call for observational material on children to support his theories of infantile sexuality. Hans was very interested in “widdlers”, and enjoyed pointing them out at the zoo, humorously asking to draw a widdler on a giraffe that his father had sketched. Hans used widdlers to distinguish animate vs. inanimate beings, but he struggled to distinguish between men and women. He was particularly curious whether his mother had a widdler – a question Freud interpreted as evidence of castration anxiety and Oedipal desire. Lacan used this question to explore the concept of the maternal phallus and how children enter the symbolic realm through language, exchange, and desire.

Hans was a joyful little boy, but shortly before his fifth birthday, a phobia of horses emerged; Hans is afraid to go into the street without his mother, and this fear crystallizes into a fear of being bitten by a horse.

Several significant events occur around the time Hans' phobia:

• Hans masturbates at night, which his mother discouraged. Freud suggests this attempt at suppression rather than satisfaction may contribute to anxiety.

• Hans asks his mother if she has a widdler. Realising his mother may not, he may conclude that castration has occurred.

• The birth of his baby sister Hanna. Hans laughed when Hanna was in the bath, remarking on her “lovely widdler” (though she clearly didn’t have one).

• These moments represents a confrontation with sexual difference. However, Hans interpreted the absence in Hanna as temporary, believing it might grow later—similar to teeth. In the episode we debate whether this is an age-appropriate belief in future growth or a defensive disavowal to avoid confronting sexual difference? Since no one explicitly told Hans that girls don’t have penises, his interpretations remain exploratory rather than outright denial.

  
  

In the episode, we discuss Hans’ dreams of giraffes and their symbolic significance. Freud interpreted the giraffes as representations of oedipal rivalry, while Lacan saw them representing a movement from the imaginary to the symbolic. Alternatively, we consider whether the widdler is simply a narrative McGuffin—a seemingly meaningless yet essential object driving the narrative forward. In order for something to become a symbol (and circulate), must it be lost, stolen or exchanged? Hans predicament highlights the psychoanalytic transition into the social world that we all, inevitably, must pass through.

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Episode Three is coming soon...