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05/12/2016 Rat Man: A Case of 'Obsessional Neurosis' ­ Freudian Psychology ­ Psychologist World
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Rat Man: A Case of 'Obsessional Neurosis'
Case study of Sigmund Freud's client Rat Man (Ernst Lanzer), whose obsessive thoughts helped
Freud to develop his theories.
T he case of a patient’s obsessive thoughts inspired Sigmund Freud to share his observations in the 1909 case studyNotes upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis. Referring to the man using the pseudonym ‘Rat Man’, Freud describes indepth how persistent, obsessive thoughts led him to irrational, compulsive behavior, such as cutting his own throat
with a razor blade. He investigated the cause of Rat Man’s ‘obsessional neurosis’, which he attributed to events which had
occurred early in the patient’s childhood but that had a lasting e悿�ect on his present state.
IN DEPTH Sigmund Freud (/psychologists/freud_1.php)
There is some debate as to the real identity of Rat Man - he has been variously identiፕ�ed as a man named Paul Lorenz, but
is more generally accepted to have been Ernst Lanzer, who was born in Vienna in 1878 and attended university, training as a
lawyer.
He su悿�ered for many years with his problem before seeking professional help.
In 1907, having read with interest numerous works of Freud and been impressed by his discussion of “curious verbal
associations”, Rat Man ፕ�nally approached the psychoanalyst. Freud noted that it was usual for patients to have su悿�ered for
some time before consulting a doctor, by which time the symptoms had become more noticeable. Rat Man claimed that
hydrotherapy, a popular activity at the time which involved bathing, had helped with the problem, but that his relations
with a person at the baths, rather than the ‘therapy’ itself, had likely been of help.
Rat Man complained of obsessive thoughts which would surface for no apparent reason in his mind. These thoughts, often
of misfortune occurring to a relative or someone close to him, would persist until he took a particular irrational action to
placate the risk.
Freud described the man’s case as a “moderately severe” of “obsessional neurosis” and found his problems more diἵ�cult
to comprehend than those of his clients with hysteria, such as the oft-quoted case of Anna O.
IN DEPTH Anna O: Sigmund Freud's Case History (/freud/anna-o-case-study-freud.php)
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05/12/2016 Rat Man: A Case of 'Obsessional Neurosis' ­ Freudian Psychology ­ Psychologist World
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IN DEPTH Anna O: Sigmund Freud's Case History (/freud/anna-o-case-study-freud.php)
During his sessions with Freud, which lasted at least 6 months, the man recounted numerous events that had occurred in
his life from his childhood up to those which were troubling him at present. Freud also engaged his patient in free
association - revealing everything that entered his mind without ፕ�ltering ideas which he would otherwise repress. By
gaining an insight into the man’s stream of consciousness, Freud hoped to identify any signs which suggested the
repression of traumatic events or feelings in the man’s subconscious.
The main subject of Rat Man’s obsessive thoughts was the irrational fear of the death of his father. He felt that by carrying
out an action, however, bizarre, he could prevent such an event occurring.
A situation which demonstrated Rat Man’s worries, and later helped him to earn his pseudonym from Freud, occurred
during military service. He worked with a lieutenant who was known to have a sadistic streak and to be defender of corporal
punishment. In an anxious state, Rat Man told Freud how one day, the lieutenant relayed to him a particularly cruel form of
punishment, which involved placing a container of live rats on a person who was laid down. The rats would seek to escape
conፕ�nement by digging through the victim. This idea, however repulsive to him, then became the subject of his obsessive
thoughts and he began to fear it happening to his partner or his father. Once the idea had entered his mind, the man was
unable to placate the irrational fear of this happening to a friend or relative.
The irrationality of Rat Man’s fears was further demonstrated when he lost his pince-nez (bifocals) and placed an order for
a new pair to be sent through the post. His retelling to Freud was complex and caused some degree of confusion. To
summarize, the person collecting the parcel from the post oἵ�ce was expected to pay for it. Rat Man’s colleague informed
him that another lieutenant had paid the fee for him, and that he should pay him back. After learning this, Rat Man
irrationally convinced himself that he must personally pay back the lieutenant otherwise his friend or relative would receive
the torture involving the rats.
To resolve his fears, Rat Man would normally carry out an action to prevent them (as he feared) from happening. However,
the lieutenant declined to take the money, saying that he had not paid the fee at the post oἵ�ce. Fearing that not paying him
the money would result in the torture, he formulated a complex plan involving him, the lieutenant and a colleague
travelling to the post oἵ�ce and carrying out a chain of transactions which would mean that he could pay the lieutenant and
prevent harm to his father or partner.
Although Rat Man’s solution was diἵ�cult to understand, his colleagues eventually travelled to the post oἵ�ce in order to put
their friend at ease.
Causes
During his sessions with Rat Man, Freud looked at his client’s history, investigating events which took place during his
childhood, with a view that they may have been at the root of his obsessive thoughts.
Rat Man described becoming sexually aware at an early age and recalled a desire to see women whom he knew naked.
According to Freud’s psychodynamic theory of wish fulፕ�llment, the early development of this desire originated from the
man’s id, a component of the psyche which in뀩�uences us from birth, prior to the ego and superego developing, which
temper the desires of the id. As the superego began to exercise in뀩�uence over his thoughts, Rat Man felt guilt at having
experienced such unacceptable desires and this con뀩�ict between the id and the ego lead to the wish being repressed later in
life. He also recalled to Freud having experienced a fear of his parents knowing his thoughts, re뀩�ecting the discomfort he
felt at having held such wishes.
IN DEPTH Psychodynamic Approach in Psychology (/freud/psychodynamic-approach.php)
Freud emphasized that repressed thoughts are not simply forgotten: they lose their “a悿�ective cathexis” but retain their
“ideational content” in the conscious. When an irrational fear a rises, Freud believed that this content must be substituted
for something else - in the case of Rat Man, irrational compulsions to prevent anxious thoughts being realised.
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Citations
The man realised the irrationality of his fears of misfortune occurring to his father, but this did not prevent the obsessive
thoughts from a悿�ecting him. Freud noted that he experienced these thoughts from childhood and even for years after the
death of his father from emphysema, whose ፕ�nal day he had not witnessed, adding to Rat Man’s irrational sense of guilt.
After spending months engaging in sessions of psychoanalysis with Rat Man, Freud claimed that he had resolved his client’s
obsessions and he was able to end treatment. This outcome would not last long, however, as Freud noted that just a few
years later, Rat Man would be killed in the First World War.(https://facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.psychologistworld.com%2Ffreud%2Frat-man-case-study.php)
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