APA Dictionary of Psychology

a landmark case of Sigmund Freud’s, illustrating the Oedipus complex. Freud traced a child’s phobia for horses to castration anxiety stemming from masturbation, to repressed death wishes toward the father, and to fear of retaliation owing to rivalry with the mother, with displacement of these emotions onto horses. Freud never actually met the boy but analyzed him through written communication with the father. The case was reported in “Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy” (1909).