Rat man. A review

Abstract

We will focus on one of the key cases analyzed by Freud, the one he himself named the “Rat Man” (fictional name for patient Ernst Lanzer) and analyzed as an “obsessive neurosis”. As in the Dora case, in this clinical case Freud intends to describe the prototype of obsessive neurosis in which no element is missing. Everything is there: sexual and forbidden thoughts that obsess the subject, aggressive thoughts towards the people he loves (especially the one called the “lady” and his own father), the sense of duty and debt that are imposed in the form of an expensive constraint, etc. However, a careful examination of the  patient’s symptoms and behavior both in his daily life and with his therapist allows us to ask ourselves whether this is really a “neurotic” disorder and not a different pathology, particularly in relation to psychotic disorders. Although Freud’s diagnosis of obsessive neurosis may evoke the current obsessive-compulsive disorder, other pathologies and comorbidities that would relativize the main diagnosis must be considered.