The Rat Man, Ibsen's Rat Wife and Little Eyolf. The Rat Man case revisited.

Abstract

According to Freud no light was thrown upon the meaning of his rat deliria until he mentioned that the Rat Wife in Ibsen's play Little Eyolf (1894) had made a strong impression on him. He did not elaborate any further how Ibsen's play became a leading clue to insight into his rat deliria. He supposed that the roots of the Rat Man's great obsessive fear were derived from his unconscious phantasies of introjecting his father's penis per anum. The author argues for another interpretation assuming that his great obsessive fear represented an intricate defence against a dangerously phallic mother. The author views splitting of the ego as a specific dysfunctional cognitive process. He criticises those who maintain that Freud's analysis of the Rat Man's transference behaviour was inadequate. When they do that, his case history is taken out of its historic context. Despite Freud's insufficient analysis of the Rat Man's conflicts with his parents, his mental health was restored. Psychic change is the result of multifarious interacting activities. The analyst's personal relationship to the patient is also an important variable.