Sexual Repression and Resultant Neurosis
             There are many similarities between the fictional Alan from Equus, and the anonymous Wolf-man from The Case of the Wolf-man From the History of an Infantile Neurosis, by Sigmund Freud; in which many of Freud's theories are applied to both patients. Freud made the link from an infantile neurosis to sexual repression. Both Alan and the Wolf-man have conflated certain events that occurred in their lives with religion , which resulted in a severe neurosis(a non-scientific word), which naturally created sexual repression, and their animal phobia.
             Wolf-man had an array of problems that plagued his childhood, and later his early adulthood years, which left him incapacitated at the age of eighteen. His parents were, for the most part absent due to their own illnesses'. The parent's mental and physical illnesses left them to entrust their children to Nanya, the governess. Nanya cared for Wolf-man as well as his two-year older sister. His sister was somewhat of a promiscuous and precocious child. She had seduced her brother, Wolf-man. Despite her actions then, in which she played the aggressive role, Wolf-man would later be rejected by her. At a young age Wolf-man had saw his sister as competition for his father's love, which is what created his aloofness towards her sexual activity with him. Wolf-man then became fonder, or attracted to his Nanya, in which he masturbated in front of her. "His Nanya disillusioned him; she made a serious face, and explained that that wasn't good; children who did that, she added, got a 'wound' in the place." It is possible that Wolf-man was fond of Nanya because of the absence of his mother, which implies the Oedipus complex. Either way his Nanya's response is believed to have incited Wolf-man's sexual repression. This sexual repression left Wolf-man to become a sexually frustrated young boy, which is why he was ...