ABSTRACT
The 'Little chanticleer' is a series of masterful clinical papers by Sandor Ferenczi. The interest of the case observation of the 'Little chanticleer' has been compared to that of Freud in connection with 'Little Hans'. The difference between these two clinical papers lies in the fact that the axis of the first is on the clinical observation of a symptom in a child, Arpad, which expresses the evolution in him of a neurotic state. The second is the account of a psychoanalytic treatment of a child, Hans, who was suffering from a neurotic phobic disorder. The 'Little chanticleer' gave Ferenczi the opportunity to tackle and illustrate several themes. The first theme concerned the effects of the castration complex on a little boy aged three-and-a-half – in other words, at a time when his Oedipal configuration was in full development. The second theme is that of the development of the theory of retroactive effects in the organisation of an infantile neurosis.
