The Case of Little Albert

[Paul Mackin]

There is a  1909  account of the famous case "Analysis of a Phobia in a
Five-Year Old Boy"  in a little collection published under the title The
Sexual Enlightenment of Children. Though Freud wrote it up it wasn't his
case. Rather the child was  treated by his own father and F was given
access to the notes. 

Don't believe any "conditioning" was involved but no doubt my 
misconception about parental relationships in the Watson-Raynor case
derives from a confusion with the Little Hans case.

Little Has called it his widdler (wiwimacher).

			P.

		

On Sun, 10 Oct 1999, rj wrote:

> Is there also a Freudian case to do with a "little Hans"? I remember
> reading a critique of William Gass's story 'The Pedersen Kid' (from *In
> the Heart of the Heart of the Country*: highly recommended) which
> suggested that the character's name derived from one of Freud's clinical
> studies. There was a connection with infant penises, too, I think,
> though I'm not sure if it was part of the experiment or simply Gass's
> obsession with protagonists who are obsessed by the fact of their small
> members.
> 
> best
> 
> 
> > On Sat, 9 Oct 1999, Murthy Yenamandra wrote:
> > 
> > > I've been reading _The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the
> > > Bicameral Mind_ by Julian Jaynes and came across the famous case of
> > > "Little Albert" - an early experiment (1920s) in conditioning of fear in
> > > infants by the psychologist J. B. Watson (father of behaviorism in the
> > > US).  I've never seen this mentioned on the list before, so I hope it's
> > > not old news to most of you.  Here is a description of the experiment,
> > > cribbed from the webpage http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/80337/6215m3f.htm:
> > 
> > It's what gave Dr. Lazlo Jamf the idea for Infant Tyrone--p. 84.
> > 
> > Somehow I'd had the erroneous impression it had been  Watson and Raynor's  
> > own child being experimented on. Glad to get this new info.
> > 
> >                         P.
>