Freud

• year?

  1918
• aim?

  show that dream analysis would help treat psychological problems by releasing repressed memories
• method?

  longitudinal case study with interviews that took place over 4 years
• sample?

  a man in his twenties from wealthy Russian family

  * nicknamed 'Wolfman'
• what happened?

  * Wolfman came to Freud suffering from depression after father and sister killed themselves

  * one of his issues was constipation

  * Freud focused on dream Wolfman had where he woke to window opening by itself and number of white wolves sitting staring from a tree
• what study found?

  * wolves watching Wolfman interpreted as Wolfman seeing his parents having sex when he was a child

  * wolf symbolized father

  * white colour of wolves symbolized his parents' bed sheets

  * tree represented Christmas tree as dream occurred around Christmas
• conclusions?

  * Wolfman had unconscious desire to be seduced by his father and this was related to receiving Christmas presents

  * however also feared father like he feared wolves bc thought his father would castrate him (like he thought his father did to his mother)

  * study found dreams can represent repressed thoughts hidden in unconscious
• criticisms?

  * difficult to generalise from case studies

  * unrepresentative bc he was suffering from mental health issues

  * the unconscious can't be objectively tested

  * study relied on Wolfman remembering his dream correctly, when we don't know if this was the case

  * interview method can be unreliable as Wolfman could have lied or wanted to be socially desirable