Introduction

This introductory chapter, in addition to providing background on the Little Hans case, develops a novel analysis of Freud’s theoretical development using the framework of Imre Lakatos’s philosophy of science. It argues that the Little Hans case history in which Freud defended his Oedipal theory was, from a philosophy of science perspective, the most important clinical theory paper Freud ever wrote. This is because the predictions Freud made in the Hans case are his one attempt to show that the Oedipal theory of the psychoneuroses, which he developed to address the falsification of his earlier seduction theory while preserving his core thesis, the sexual theory of the neuroses, was not merely an ad hoc hypothesis but was a fruitful and progressive scientific proposal. The Hans case also has unique advantages for analyzing the validity of Freud’s reasoning because the independent transcript of the analysis by Hans’s father relieves concerns about Freud’s possibly biased reporting.