Rat Man

The official title of Freud's 1909 article is Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis.

But it is often referred to as The Case of the Rat Man.

At first, I read an article about Freud's article, and it's meh.

It describes Rat Man as a former soldier who became obsessed with a form of punishment a superior had told him about.

The punishment was described in this boring scholarly article as, quote, "Placing a container of live rats on a person who was laying down.

The rats would seek to escape confinement by digging through the victim," unquote.

Rat Man became irrationally afraid this punishment would be given to his loved ones.

In my mind, I pictured a guy laying on his back with rats placed on his stomach, grizzly and somewhat relevant.