Talk:Rat Man

On the criticism section
The first paragraph of the criticism section does not really seem to be related to criticism:

"The only known case in which Freud's notes survive is that of Ernst Lanzer, the Rat-Man, where they exist for the first third of the treatment.[20] Freud treated him for obsessions, particularly the dread that something terrible would happen to his father and his fiancée. His fear of rats, Freud concluded after elaborate interpretations, was based on disguised anal erotic fantasies.[21] Mr. Stadlen tracked down relatives of Mr. Lanzer who said the account handed down by the family was that Freud had helped him overcome shyness so that he could marry. "

It also repeats the myth, that the rat man was afraid of rats. This was not the case and is not mentioned anywhere in the publication. Freuds interpretations of the "rat-torture" focus the patients desires to punishing those that are dear to him, what he calls a "love-hate complex" and its relationship to sexual desire. The anal erotic fantasies are just a shape that this takes and are only once in the whole text explicitly named as such. I would therefore propose to remove the whole paragraph. I am, of course, open to other forms of dealing with it. Metamer (talk) 13:35, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

Plagarized portion
The 'rat man' portion seems to be lifted from the NYTimes article linked. Should it be summarized or deleted? Dmenet (talk) 20:18, 26 April 2008 (UTC)


 * My suggestion would be that you summarize it, pending a thorough re-write (which it needs for more than one reason). I'll make a start at a re-write, but don't have much time right now... Pfistermeister (talk) 22:02, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Is 'Criticism' neutral?
Article currently reads: "After publishing the case notes in 1909, Freud wrote a letter to Carl Jung, indicating that the Rat Man's problems still remained, despite Freud claiming in the case-history that "the patient's rat delirium had disappeared". "

Checking the source (McGuire), F actually says: "he is facing life with courage and ability. The one point that still gives him trouble (father-complex and transference) has shown up clearly in my conversations". I am concerned that the article's current construction of this letter may shade WP:NOR and WP:NPOV, and propose hiving off discussion of the success of the treatment to a separate subsection and tagging it accordingly. Jacobisq (talk) 09:34, 24 October 2012 (UTC)