Research Study

• dream analysis of the Wolfman
• Background

  Psychology was a new subject when Freud was researching and so his work is original and not based on any previous research. Study of the Wolfman – pseudonym – who was seeking help for depression. Freud aimed to try and explain and treat the Wolman’s psychological problems, and develop his own theory of dreaming.
• Method

  case study. A series of interviews were carried out between 1910 and 1914 which he analysed 15 years later. This was therefore a longitudinal study.
• Sample

  Wolfman pseudonym used to protect patients identity but it was later revealed his name was Sergei Pankejeff.  He was a man in his 20’s from a wealthy Russian family. His older sister (1906) and his father (1907) had committed suicide. These events lead to Wolfman’s own depression (he couldn’t empty his bowels and he felt like there was a veil cutting him off from the world)
• Procedure

  Wolfman as a very young child had a dream and he described it to Freud. He was lying in bed and in front of his window there was a row of old walnut trees. Suddenly the window opened and he was terrified to see some white wolves sitting on the big walnut tree in front of the window. There were six or seven of them. The wolves were white and had big tails (likes foxes) and their ears were perked up (like dogs). He was scared he was going to be eaten so screamed and woke up. This was labelled as Freud as the Manifest content.
• Primal scene


  The boy witnessing his parents having sex at a young age
• Wolfman witnessing the primal scene

  Resulted in Freud analysing the dream
• Reversal


  The wolves watching the boy was a reversal of the boy watching the sex act
• Wolf


  Symbolised the boy's father
• Tree

  Represented a Christmas tree as the dream had occurred at Christmas time
• Where there would have been presents on the tree

  There were wolves in their place
• White colour of the wolves

  Represented the white bedlinen and his parent's underclothes
• Wolfman's unconscious desire


  To be seduced by his father
• Pleasure associated with receiving gifts at Christmas

  Turned into wolves (his father)
• Wolfman saw the look of pleasure on his mother's face during the primal scene


  Wanted to experience that pleasure too
• Castration


  Wolfman's mother had clearly been castrated by his father (because she did not have a penis)
• Wolfman's castration anxiety

  Evidence that he had anxiety the wolves were going to eat him
• Big tails of the wolves

  Represented their large penises which was a threat to the young boy
• Latent content of the dream


  What Freud concluded based on his analysis
• Conclusion

  The case study shows that the unconscious mind can have a significant effect on behaviour. It also illustrates the process of repression where traumatic events are pushed into the unconscious mind as a safety mechanism. It also shows that repressed memories can find their way back into the conscious through dreams that people recall.