Freud treated Sergei Pankejeff, known as the Wolf Man, who was suffering from neurotic breakdown and wolf phobia. Through dream analysis and free association, Freud diagnosed Pankejeff with infantile neurosis stemming from witnessing his parents having intercourse. Pankejeff's dream of wolves in a tree outside his window was instrumental in Freud's theory of the unconscious and psychosexual development. Though Freud claimed to cure Pankejeff, his condition fluctuated and debates remain on the success of Freud's treatment.

1. From the History of an Infantile
Neurosis
WOLFMAN

2. INTRODUCTION

3. WOLFMAN
•The twenty-three-year-old Dr. Sergueï Pankejeff, alias the Wolf Man, first consulted Freud
in the beginning of February, 1910.
•Pankejeff was born to a wealthy family from St. Petersburg.
• His mother suffered from abdominal disorders, as a consequence, she had little to do with
her children and father suffered from depression attacks, which led to his absence from
home.
• He had a sister who was 2 years older than him, who later would play an important part in
his life.
•He was looked after an uneducated old peasant woman Grushna, who he called, “Nanya”.

4. •During summers, his parents would move to their other
EARLY CHILDHOOD - HISTORY estate and he would stay behind with his nurse. One
summer, his sister was left with him. When the parents
returned, he had transformed into an
irritable, discontented and violent child.
•He began screaming like a lunatic, whenever he caught
sight of a book, in which a wolf was represented, in an
upright standing position.
• He also became scared of other big and small animals
which included caterpillars, beetles, butterflies, horses. At
the same time, he developed a cruelty towards animals
and enjoyed beating or cutting them.

5. • His mother acquainted him with the Bible stories, in order to
EARLY CHILDHOOD - HISTORY elevate him. These were read out to him by his mother and also
Nanya, who herself was very pious.
• He also longed to be very pious, performing certain rituals like
praying every night and kissing all the holy pictures that hung in
the room. However, he had blasphemous thoughts about God
and the Holy Trinity, attributing horse dung, swine and
excrements on the ground to them.
•On seeing beggars, old men and others he felt sorry for, in order
to not become like them, he would start breathing nosily.
However, this had begun in his sixth year, when he had visited
his father when he was terminally ill and felt sorry for him.
•His initial relation with his father was very cordial and aspired to
be like him. Towards the end of his childhood, his father
developed a preference for his daughter which led to an
estrangement between the two.

6. •At the age of about three and a quarter years, his sister seduced him
EARLY CHILDHOOD - HISTORY into sexual practices. The scenes with his sister had taken place during
the same summer his behaviour changed.
•During his childhood he competed with his sister for the good opinion
of the parents and felt oppressed by her merciless display of
superiority over him.
• From his fourteenth year onwards, the common opposition of the
parents, brought them close enough to become best friends. During his
puberty he attempted at an intimate physical approach, however, she
rejected him.
•During her twenties she began to complain she was not good looking
and withdrew from society. She was sent on travel with an elderly lady.
However, on her second journey in 1906, she poisoned herself and
died far away from home.
• When the news of his sister arrived, he felt no sorrow, stating he
quietly rejoiced in the fact he was now the sole heir to the property.
• His father committed suicide in 1907 by consuming an excess of
sleeping medication, a few months after Sergei had left for Munich to
seek treatment for his own ailment as he was showing signs of
depression.

7. The Dream
"I dreamt that it was night and that I was
lying in bed. (My bed stood with its foot
towards the window; in front of the
window there was a row of old walnut
trees. I know it was winter when I had the
dream, and night-time.) Suddenly the
window opened of its own accord, and I
was terrified to see that some white
wolves were sitting on the big walnut tree
in front of the window. There were six or
seven of them. The wolves were quite
white, and looked more like foxes or
sheep-dogs, for they had big tails like foxes
and they had their ears pricked like dogs
when they pay attention to something. In
great terror, evidently of being eaten up by
the wolves, I screamed and woke up. My
nurse hurried to my bed, to see what had
happened to me. It took quite a long while
before I was convinced that it had only
been a dream; I had had such a clear and
life-like picture of the window opening and
the wolves sitting on the tree. At last I
grew quieter, felt as though I had escaped
from some danger, and went to sleep
again"

8. SYMPTOMS

9. Symptoms
• Neurotic breakdown
•Panic attack
SYMPTOMS
• Wolf phobia
• Several Obsessional neurosis
• Depression
• Disturbance in the intestinal function, only to be relieved by enema
• Sadomasochistic tendencies
•He also felt like there was a veil cutting him off from the world

10. TREATMENT PLAN

11. TREATMENT PLAN Freud used several techniques:
• Dream analysis
•Free association
•Analysis of his identification with fairytales
such as the “Reynard the fox”, “Little Red
Riding Hood”, “The Seven little Goats” and
the story of the tailless wolf as told by his
grandfather
•Reconstruction of the primal scene

12. DIAGNOSIS

13. •Freud diagnosed him as having Infantile neurosis.
•The dream brought about the unconscious memory of his parent’s
coitus a tergo (vaginal penetration from behind), where he was able to
see his parent’s genitals.
DIAGNOSIS
•Freud argued that the wolves in the dream were connected to certain
childhood stories which had the theme of castration. Based on this he
said, this dream was the first most significant event that brought
forward the fear of his father which dominated the rest of his life.
•As his father had been the object of his sexual satisfaction, the dream
signified the wish he longed from his father, the result being the horror
of the wish being fulfilled and the repression of the impulse.
•His intestinal disorder was an identification with his mother, who
lamented about her health to her doctor, he became nervous of his
own health

14. •Under the influence of the primal scene, he had concluded that his mother
had became ill by what his father did to her. His identification with his mother
or having experience the same symptoms as her, meant that he was in her
place during the sexual scene.
DIAGNOSIS
•Freud, presumed that during the dream state, the patient had understood
that the women are castrated, and this wound is necessary for the condition of
femininity. Since, the sexual intercourse could take place in the anus, with the
fear of castration, the bowels admittedly involved a contradiction.
•Thus, the organ by which he identified himself with women was able to
express itself in the anal zone. He was making use of the content of the
intestine in one of the most primitive meaning.
•Later in the paper Freud posited the possibility that Pankejeff had instead
witnessed copulation between animals, which was displaced to his parents

15. CONCLUSION

16. • Freud published the case in 1918 where he claimed to have cured Pankejev
completely, freeing him of all of his fears and obsessions, however, the status
of his cure is debatable. For nearly 70 years, Pankejev was in and out of
analysis with Freud and his followers with his condition worsening, until
Freud's death
CONCLUSION
• Pankejeff's dream played a major role in Freud's theory of psychosexual
development, it was one of the most important dreams for the developments
of Freud's theories
• Additionally, Pankejeff became the main case used by Freud to prove the
validity of psychoanalysis
•It was the first detailed case study not involving Freud analyzing himself. This
brought together the main aspects of catharsis, the unconscious, sexuality, and
dream analysis put forward by Freud in his Studies on Hysteria (1895), The
Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and his Three Essays on the Theory of
Sexuality.