Psychoanalysis Case Studies Psychology Essay Paper (Essay Sample)

Psychoanalytic Case Studies- Neelam Shah- K1132310
Compare and contrast Freud and Lacan's interpretation of the Ratman's obsessive symptoms with reference to Freud's case-study and Lacan's "The Neurotic's Individual Myth".
This essay will compare and contrast Freud and Lacan’s interpretation of the Ratman’s obsessive symptoms with reference to Freud’s case study and Lacan’s “The Neurotics Individual Myth”. First part of the essay will give a small insight into who the Ratman is and a brief overview of his story and his symptoms. Second part of essay will look into Freud’s analysis of the Ratman’s Obsessive Symptoms in reference to his case study. Third part of essay will examine Lacan’s theoretical analysis of Ratman’s obsessive symptoms in reference to the Neurotics’s individual myth. Fourth part of essay will compare and contrast both views and summarise both interpretations and give a conclusion as to which theory for me makes more sense to evaluate the Ratman’s obsessive symptoms.
Freud’s most famous patients, who has come to be known by the pseudonym the ‘Rat Man’. The Rat man whose real name was Ernst Lanzer, a twenty-nine year old Lawyer who first came to visit Freud in October 1907 as a patient who complained about his obsessive fears and compulsive impulses. Obsessions lasting from childhood had intensified most dramatically in the previous four years. In the recent past Lanzer's obsessional ideation involved lethal injury dealt to his girlfriend and to his dead father. Lanzer also complained about compulsive impulses, such as cutting his own throat with a razor; he also described his personal prohibitions. Lanzer’s obsessions appear in the form of imaginary speech that enters his mind.