Krysí muž a Vlčí muž

An important part of Freud's work, which helped him to clarify his basic theories, were the descriptions of his clinical cases - case histories of his patients. These provide a fascinating insight into how Freud's daily sessions were conducted. In the present committee we present the case histories of the Rat Man and the Wolf Man. Rat Man summarizes one of the earliest descriptions of the entire psychoanalytic treatment, the clinical details and the inner world of the patient. It illustrates the conflict between the desire for and struggle with the love of the father, between love and hate, and the transference of hateful feelings into compulsive symptoms. In contrast, The Wolf Man illuminates the mystery of psychosexuality, containing fantasies of castration, primal scenes and seduction. In this case study, Freud puts forward the idea of the retroactive reworking of traumatic experience, the additional transformation of memories and fantasies. The Rat Man casebook is supplemented by Freud's extensive notes he took immediately after each session. These were found in his estate and have not yet been published in Czech. They are, however, an excellent record of Freud's clinical observation and thinking.
Reading Freud's case studies shows not only that Freud was able to masterfully analyze the human interior and speak to the displaced aspects of the human soul, but also that his accounts are of a high literary standard.

Czech edition