Rat Man Case

n the case of the Rat Man, Mr. B would take extensively long train rides in order to repay a Lieutenant a rather small amount of money who he was very aware that this was not the person whom the money was actually owed to. When the Lieutenant would not accept, Mr. B was thrown into confusion because this meant that he could not keep his promise, which would result in his feared fantasy about rats burrowing into his fathers anus as a form of torture would come true. The fact that his father was already dead is what made this patient initially seek help from Freud. It wasn’t until Mr. B told the story for a third time to Freud that he was capable of realizing the false premises that this vow was based upon. A defense mechanism known as displacement

Repression is defined as “a defense in which an individual excludes unacceptable thoughts and feelings from consciousness.” (Auchincloss Defenses) In telling the story the patient had suppressed to not only Freud by also himself about the other captain and the young lady who was seemingly trustworthy and the post office. These facts makes his behavior to fulfill his vows even more irrational then before, and is probably the reason the patient excludes these thoughts from his conscious behavior. Freud uses this phenomenon of repression in order to help better understand what is going on in Mr. B’s unconscious that is driving him to behave in such a bizarre manner. Freud hypothesizes “that the Rat Man actually hates his father, as well as loving and idolizing him, but that this hatred has been repressed and buried in the unconscious.” This hatred for his father was formed as in the patient as a child in response to his father denying him of the sexual pleasures he desired and fear that resulted from his fathers beating. In this case the sexual instinctual impulse is being repressed. This repression is formed through a sense of conflict in Mr. B because this behavior is perceived by him to be unacceptable yet pleasurable. Repression works on the unconscious of an individual and results in the individual only being capable of realizing its effects on their behavior. They are not able to consciously determine the actual process of repression taking place in their mental framework. In regards to Mr. B, he is aware of the effects his obsession and fear is having on his behavior, but regardless, he will still remain attached to the idea that he hates his father even though he can’t consciously make sense of