Introduction
In translating paragraphs 30 to 34 of 3rd April 1957, (see Appendix 1), Simon Fisher and Julia Evans of EC Collective Translating Group discovered a number of discrepancies.
Overall it seems that Lacan is commenting on two movements based on Hans’s perception of horses & Good Lord. He seems to link the Good Lord with Sigmund Freud mischievously taking an overarching superior position.
Firstly, on the emergence of Good Lord (God) and fewer horses on 15th March following the employment of a new maid
and secondly, on Sigmund Freud’s comment on 21st April, (see Appendix 2), on Hans’ changing construction of the ‘Good Lord’ following his mother’s assertion. Sigmund Freud’s footnote 1 (SE X p42 31st March) teases out the construction on the father’s side. This is summarised by Sigmund Freud and quoted by Jacques Lacan in paragraph 34. (Appendix 1)
Notes
-Information on Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy – ‘Little Hans’: 1909 : Sigmund Freud is found on www.LacanianWorks.org /3 Sigmund Freud (19090101 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts). It is published Standard Edition X p5-149 and is available bilingual at www.Freud2Lacan.com /homepage (Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy (Little Hans))
– This is the next session undergoing translation, in an ongoing effort to translate Seminar IV from unedited transcripts, and is available, to date, at www.LacanianWorksExchange.net. Information is at Seminar IV The Relation from Object [La Relation d’objet] & Freudian Structures (1956-1957) : from 21st November 1956 : Jacques Lacan on www.LacanianWorks.org /4 Jacques Lacan (19561121)
The quotations in Appendix 1 are taken from the draft translation.
The discrepancies
A) The two occasions
3rd April 1957, Para 31, He speaks about it [the Good Lord] on two occasions. (Jacques Lacan, see Appendix 1)
Hans speaks of God (the Good Lord) on more than two occasions – see Appendix 2. Jacques Lacan may be referring to the two positions of Hans relative to God which emerge from Sigmund Freud
-Sigmund Freud’s interpretation which Jacques Lacan quotes in Paragraph 34
“Long before you were born, I have foreseen that one day a little boy would love his mother too much, and due to that would get into some difficulties with his father.”[26] [26] Monday 31st March, afternoon, SE X p42
Hans’s comment, Monday 31st March afternoon, SE X p42-43, ‘Does the Professor talk to God,’ Hans asked his father on the way home, ‘as he can tell all that beforehand?’ (Appendix 2)
-& Sigmund Freud’s comment on the text, SE X p91 Footnote 1, 21st April, … and she reconciled the two statements by declaring that if she didn’t want it God didn’t want it either.[1] [1] Freud, Ce que femme veut Dieu veut. But Hans, with his usual acumen, had once more put his finger upon a most serious problem.
B) Difficulties with dates
30th March is referred to twice in paragraph 31 (Appendix 1) by Jacques Lacan, see following
… the 30 March [22], it is after the phantasm of the two giraffes [23] that the next day itself yields a mitigation
… and in any case there is one thing which strikes little Hans, it is that the next day, the 30 March, he goes out and he perceives for himself that there are a slightly fewer cars and horses than usual.
There are three sources of difficulty
1) the 30 March is not the next day after the 30 March
The two giraffes phantasy appeared on 28th March, SE X p36-38, Appendix 1 Footnote 23 & 24
&
The two giraffes – 30 March, SE X p41
A most suitable continuation of the giraffe phantasy. He had a suspicion that to take possession of his mother was forbidden; he had come up against the barrier against incest.[1] But he regarded it as forbidden in itself. His father was with him each time in the forbidden exploits which he carried out in his imagination, and was locked up with him.
Sigmund Freud’s interpretation appears the next day
31st March afternoon, SE X p42, Appendix 1 Footnote 27. Jacques Lacan quotes this in paragraph 34 (Appendix 1).
So ‘the next day’ could refer to the ‘two giraffes’ – 28th March & 30th March or to its reiteration on the 30th March and Sigmund Freud’s interpretation on 31st March.
2) Paragraph 31 (Appendix 1 below) quotes Sigmund Freud, He (Little Hans) said : “ As it is kind (gentil) and smart (malin) on the part of the good Lord to have put fewer horses today!”
The reference for this is SE X p31 or Appendix 1 Footnote 25. In the text the date is given as 15th March. This is the first of Hans’s references to the Good Lord, translated as ‘God’ by James Strachey. See Appendix 2 for more detail.
Background detail
SE X p30, (Freud) Doctor and patient, father and son, were therefore at one in ascribing the chief share in the pathogenesis of Hans’s present condition to his habit of masturbating.[2] Indications were not wanting, however, of the presence of other significant factors.
(Hans’s father’s) ‘On March 3rd we got in a new maid, whom he is particularly pleased with. She lets him ride on her back while she cleans the floor, and so he always calls her “my horse”, and holds on to her dress with cries of “Gee-up”. On about March 10th he said to this new nursemaid: “If you do such-and-such a thing you’ll have to undress altogether, and take off your chemise even.” (He meant this as a punishment, but it is easy to recognise the wish behind it.)
[2] [‘Onanieangewöhnung.’ The editions previous to 1924 read wrongly ‘Onanieabgewöhnung’, ‘breaking himself of masturbating’.] [AI Overview, 12th May 2026, The German term “Onanieangewöhnung” refers to the process of developing the habit of masturbation or becoming accustomed to it. In English, it can be translated as: Developing a habit of masturbation, Acquiring the habit of masturbation, Becoming accustomed to masturbation, In a clinical or psychological context, it may be described as the establishment of a self-stimulation habit.]
… SE X p30-31 (Hans’s father’s notes), ‘On March 13th in the morning I said to Hans: “You know, if you don’t put your hand to your widdler any more, this nonsense of yours’ll soon get better.”
‘Hans: “But I don’t put my hand to my widdler any more.”
‘I: “But you still want to.”
‘Hans: “Yes, I do. But wanting’s not doing, and doing’s not wanting.” (!!)
‘I: “Well, but to prevent your wanting to, this evening you’re going to have a bag to sleep in.”
‘After this we went out in front of the house. Hans was still afraid, but his spirits were visibly raised by the prospect of having his struggles made easier for him, and he said: “Oh, if I have a bag to sleep in my nonsense’ll have gone tomorrow.” And, in fact, he was much less afraid of horses, and was fairly calm when vehicles drove past.
The quote from 15th March, (paragraph 31, Appendix 1 Footnote 25 or SE X p31) then follows directly. It is followed by a further incident in the evening, SE X p32 which is included in a weekly report,
SE X p32, Weekly Report from Hans’s Father: ‘My dear Professor, I enclose the continuation of Hans’s story-quite an interesting instalment. I shall perhaps take the liberty of calling upon you during your consulting hours on Monday and if possible of bringing Hans with me-assuming that he will come. I said to him to-day: “Will you come with me on Monday to see the Professor, who can take away your nonsense for you?”
‘He: “No.”
It is likely that this is a reference to the meeting with Sigmund Freud on Monday 31st, so Freud would have known about Hans’s first reference to the Good Lord & his being much less afraid of horses now, before this meeting. from Little Hans’s father’s note.
3) James Strachey refers to problems with dates, 22nd & 21st April
See SE X p91 which is reproduced in Appendix 2
SE X p91 Footnote 1, … [James Strachey, It seems likely that the whole passage from the words ‘Hans naturally asked yesterday ••• ‘ down to ‘ ••. God didn’t want it either’ should be in brackets, and that it is all a report of what had happened the day before. When Freud was consulted on this point by the translators (in 1923), he agreed that this was probably so, but preferred to have the text left unaltered, since it was a transcript of Hans’s father’s report.]
Hans’s references to the Good Lord (translated as God by James Strachey) have been put in chronological order in Appendix 2.
C) The translation of ‘gescheit’
Paragraph 32, Does that mean that today one has less need of horses? This is what that might mean, but the German word does not mean kind (gentil) but downright smart [franchement futé]. See Appendix 1 Footnote 26.
According to Jacques-Alain Miller, translated by Adrian Price, p267 of Polity Press 2020 gives, ‘Does that mean that on this day there is less need of horses? It could mean that, but the word gescheit doesn’t mean kind, but rather indisputably clever.’
So in this version, gescheit is given by Jacques Lacan.
Paragraph 31 Appendix 1 Footnote 25
15th March, SE X p31, He resisted at first, but finally went with me all the same. He obviously felt all right in the street, as there was not much traffic, and said:
“How sensible! The Good Lord’s [Strachey gives God] done away with horses now.”
»Das ist gescheit, dass der liebe Gott das Pferd schon ausgelassen hat.« GW 33
It would appear that ‘gescheit’ has been mistranslated into French as ‘gentil’ – kind, instead of ‘downright smart’, and Jacques Lacan is complaining of this. James Strachey’s translation of ‘How sensible!’ is ok and ‘Downright smart!’ probably more accurate.
Julia Evans May 2026
Appendix 1
Para No | P140 of transcript, no editing, http://staferla.free.fr/S4/S4%20LA%20RELATION.pdf | Paragraph 30-34 of draft translation, EC Collective Translation Group, www.LacanianWorksExchange.net |
30 | ... C’est du Père imaginaire qu’il s’agit, c’est la garantie de l’ordre universel dans ses éléments réels les plus massifs et les plus brutaux, c’est lui qui a tout fait. Quand je vous dis cela, je ne fais pas simplement que forger mon tableau, vous n’avez qu’à maintenant vous reporter à l’observation du petit Hans : quand le petit Hans parle du bon Dieu, il en parle d’une façon très jolie. | ... It is from the imaginary Father that he in himself acts, it is the guarantee of the universal order within its most massive and most brutal real elements, it is he who has made all. When I tell you that, I do not just set about moulding my table [tableau], at the moment you have only to refer to little Hans’ observation : when the little Hans speaks of the good Lord [bon Dieu], he speaks about it in a very cute way. |
31 | Il en parle à deux occasions. Son père a commencé de lui donner certains éclaircissements, et il en résulte une amélioration, d’ailleurs passagère, et à ce moment là, le 30 Mars c’est après le fantasme des deux girafes que le lendemain se produit un allègement, parce qu’en effet il n’est pas entièrement satisfaisant d’avoir fait de la mère une boule de papier, mais c’est dans la bonne voie, et en tout cas il y a une chose qui frappe le petit Hans, c’est que le lendemain, le 30 Mars, il sort et il s’aperçoit qu’il y a un peu moins de voitures et de chevaux qu’il n’y en a d’habitude. Il dit : « Comme c’est gentil et malin de la part du Bon Dieu d’avoir mis moins de chevaux aujourd’hui ! » | He speaks about it on two occasions[22]. His father started to give him some enlightenments, and from it results an improvement, albeit fleeting, and there at this moment, the 30 March[23], it is after the phantasm of the two giraffes[24] that the next day itself yields a mitigation, because in effect it is not entirely satisfactory to have made a paper ball of the mother, but it is on the right track, and in any case there is one thing which strikes little Hans, it is that the next day, the 30th March, he goes out and he perceives for himself that there are a slightly fewer cars and horses than usual. He said : “ As it is kind (gentil) and smart (malin) on the part of the good Lord to have put fewer horses today!”[25] |
32 | Qu’est-ce que cela veut dire ? Nous n’en savons rien. Est-ce que cela veut dire qu’on a moins besoin de chevaux aujourd’hui ? C’est ce que cela peut vouloir dire, mais le mot allemand ne veut pas dire gentil, mais franchement futé. On a tendance à croire que c’est parce que le Bon Dieu avait épargné les difficultés, mais si on croit que le cheval n’est pas seulement une difficulté, mais un élément essentiel, cela veut dire qu’on a moins besoin de chevaux aujourd’hui. | What does that mean? We know nothing of it. Does that mean that today one has less need of horses? This is what that might mean, but the German word does not mean kind (gentil) but downright smart [franchement futé][26]. One has the tendency to believe that it’s because the Good Lord had spared difficulties, but if one believes that the horse isn’t only a difficulty, but an essential element, that means that today, one has less need of horses. |
33 | Quoiqu’il en soit, ceci pour vous dire que le Bon Dieu est là comme un point de référence essentiel, et qu’il est tout à fait frappant de voir qu’après la rencontre avec FREUD, c’est au Bon Dieu que le petit Hans va faire allusion, et pour tout dire il a donc des entretiens avec le bon Dieu, pour avoir dit tout ce qu’il vient de dire. FREUD lui-même ne manque pas d’en éprouver un chatouillement à la fois amusé et heureux, il fait d’ailleurs lui-même la réserve qu’il y est sans doute pour quelque chose, car dit-il, de sa propre vantardise il n’a pas manqué de lui-même de prendre très singulièrement cette position archi-supérieure, qui consiste à lui dire : | Be that as it may, in order to tell you this - that the Good Lord is there as an essential point of reference - and that it is utterly striking to see that, after the meeting with Freud, it is to the Good Lord that little Hans is going to refer and to tell all. He then has some conversations with the Good Lord in order to have said all that he comes from saying. From it, Freud himself does not fail to experience a tickle, simultaneously amused and happy. Otherwise he makes himself the reservation that it is there without doubt for something, for he says, from his own bragging, he does not miss from his very particularly taking this far [archi] superior position, which consists of telling him (Hans) : |
34 | « Bien avant que tu sois né, j’avais prévu qu’un jour un petit garçon aimerait trop sa mère, et à cause de cela entrerait dans des difficultés avec son père. » | “Long before you were born, I have foreseen that one day a little boy would love his mother too much, and due to that would get into some difficulties with his father.”[27] |
Footnotes from the draft English translation by EC Collective, translating from unedited transcripts
[22] See Appendix 2 for all the references to God/good Lord [liebe Gott] in Sigmund Freud’s text
[23] 30th March,
SE X p40 mentions 30th March
and goes on to state SE X p41 (punctuation altered), ‘After we returned from our visit to you, which took place the same day, Hans confessed to yet another little bit of craving to do something forbidden: “I say, I thought something this morning again.” “What?” ”I went with you in the train, and we smashed a window and the policeman took us off with him.” ‘
(Freud’s comment) A most suitable continuation of the giraffe phantasy. He had a suspicion that to take possession of his mother was forbidden; he had come up against the barrier against incest.[1] But he regarded it as forbidden in itself. His father was with him each time in the forbidden exploits which he carried out in his imagination, and was locked up with him. His father, he thought, also did that enigmatic forbidden something with his mother which he replaced by an act of violence such as smashing a window-pane or forcing a way into an enclosed space.
That afternoon the father and son visited me during my consulting hours. I already knew the funny little fellow, and with all his self-assurance he was yet so amiable that I had always been glad to see him. I do not know whether he remembered me, but he behaved irreproachably and like a perfectly reasonable member of human society. The consultation was a short one.
(Hans’ father speaking) His father opened it by remarking that, in spite of all the pieces of enlightenment we had given Hans, his fear of horses had not yet diminished.
(Freud and Hans’ father) We were also forced to confess that the connections between the horses he dreaded (‘ängstigte’ so not Strachey’s ‘afraid of’) and the affectionate feelings towards his mother which had been revealed were by no means abundant.
GW p40, Wir mußten uns auch eingestehen, daB die Beziehungen zwischeri den Pferden, vor denen er sich ängstigte, und den aufgedeckten Regungen von Zärtlichkeit für die Mutter wenig ausgiebig waren.
James Strachey’s footnote [1] [See the last section of the third of Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905d), Standard Ed., 7, 225.)
[24] ‘Two giraffes’ is mentioned
– 28th March SE X p36-38
SE X p36, ‘Next day I questioned him closely to discover why he had come in to us during the night; and after some reluctance the following dialogue took place, which I (Hans’s father) immediately took down in shorthand:
‘He: “In the night there was a big giraffe in the room and a crumpled one; and the big one called out because I took the crumpled one away from it. Then it stopped calling out; and then I sat down on top of the crumpled one.”
– 30th March, SE X p40 mentions 30 March followed by
SE X p41, ‘After we returned from our visit to you, which took place the same day, Hans confessed to yet another little bit of craving to do something forbidden: “I say, I thought something this morning again.” “What?” ”I went with you in the train, and we smashed a window and the policeman took us off with him.” ‘
A most suitable continuation of the giraffe phantasy.
[25] 15th March
SE X p31, He resisted at first, but finally went with me all the same. He obviously felt all right in the street, as there was not much traffic, and said:
“How sensible! The Good Lord’s [Strachey gives God] done away with horses now.”
»Das ist gescheit, dass·der liebe Gott das Pferd schon ausgelassen hat.« GW 33 .
From A.I. “Das ist gescheit” translates best as “That is clever”, “That is smart”, or “That is sensible”.
From A.I. “Franchement futé” translates to English as “really clever,” “downright smart,” or “honestly sharp.” It combines “franchement” (frankly, really, downright) with “futé” (clever, smart, shrewd, resourceful) to emphasize that someone or something is very clever.
[26] Lacan’s comment about a mistranslation does not seem to refer to James Strachey’s English one, ‘How sensible!’ (see footnote 25) which is a possible translation of “Das ist gescheit”. Therefore it is probable that ‘gescheit’ has been translated as ‘gentil’ (kind) in the French translation of Little Hans.
[27] Monday 31st March, afternoon
SE X p41, That afternoon the father and son visited me during my consulting hours. …
SE X p42, Long before he was in the world, I [Freud] went on, I had known that a little Hans would come who would be so fond of his mother that he would be bound to feel afraid of his father because of it; and I had told his father this. ‘But why do you think I’m angry with you?’ his father interrupted me at this point; ‘have I ever scolded you or hit you?’ Hans corrected him: ‘Oh yes! You have hit me.’ ‘That’s not true. When was it, anyhow?’ ‘This morning,’ answered the little boy; and his father recollected that Hans had quite unexpectedly butted his head into his stomach, so that he had given him as it were a reflex blow with his hand. It was remarkable that he had not brought this detail into connection with the neurosis; but he now recognized it as an expression of the little boy’s hostile disposition towards him, and perhaps also as a manifestation of a need for getting punished for it.[1] [1] (Sigmund Freud) Later on the boy repeated his reaction towards his father in a clearer and more complete manner, by first hitting his father on the hand and then affectionately kissing the same hand.
Appendix 2
Appearances of God/Good Lord in ‘Little Hans’.
These are in chronological order, not as they appear in SE X.
15th March
SE X p31, He resisted at first, but finally went with me all the same. He obviously felt all right in the street, as there was not much traffic, and said: “How sensible! God’s done away with horses now.” [GW 33 .»Das ist gescheit, dass·der liebe Gott das Pferd schon ausgelassen hat.« 15 March]
Monday 31st March afternoon
SE X p42-43, ‘Does the Professor talk to God,’ Hans asked his father on the way home, ‘as he can tell all that beforehand?’
Probably 21st April, see SE X p91 Footnote 1
SE X p91
(Hans naturally asked yesterday [written on 22nd April] if there were any more babies inside Mummy. I told him not, and said that if God did not wish it none would grow inside her.)
‘Hans: “But Mummy told me if she didn’t want it no more’d grow, and you say if God doesn’t want it.”
‘So I told him it was as I had said, upon which he observed: “You were there, though, weren’t you? You know better, for certain.” He then proceeded to cross-question his mother, and she reconciled the two statements by declaring that if she didn’t want it God didn’t want it either.[1]}
1 Freud, Ce que femme veut Dieu veut. But Hans, with his usual acumen, had once more put his finger upon a most serious problem.
[James Strachey, It seems likely that the whole passage from the words ‘Hans naturally asked yesterday ••• ‘ down to ‘ ••. God didn’t want it either’ should be in brackets, and that it is all a report of what had happened the day before. When Freud was consulted on this point by the translators (in 1923), he agreed that this was probably so, but preferred to have the text left unaltered, since it was a transcript of Hans’s father’s report.]
22nd April, afternoon
SE X p85 ‘I (after changing the subject): “How do you think chickens are born?”
‘He: “The stork just makes them grow; the stork makes chickens grow-no, God does.”
22nd April, afternoon, continuation of the above
SE X p 87, ‘Hans: ”Oh yes, boys have girls and girls have boys.” [1]
‘I: “Boys don’t have children. Only women, only Mummies have children.”
‘Hans; “But why shouldn’t I?”
‘I: “Because God’s arranged it like that.”
‘Hans; “But why don’t you have one? Oh yes, you’ll have one all right. Just you wait.”
‘I: “I shall have to wait some time.”
[1] Freud, Here is another bit of infantile sexual theory with an unsuspected meaning.
22nd April, afternoon, continuation of the above
SE X p91, ‘I: “You said you didn’t want Mummy to have another baby.”
‘Hans: “Well, then she won’t be loaded up again. Mummy said if Mummy didn’t want one, God didn’t want one either. If Mummy doesn’t want one she won’t have one.”
[The continuation dialogue from 21st April has been put in chronological order.]
22nd April, afternoon, continuation of the above
SE X p92, ‘Hans: “You say Daddies don’t have babies; so how does it work, my wanting to be Daddy?”
‘J: “You’d like to be Daddy and married to Mummy; you’d like to be as big as me and have a moustache; and you’d like Mummy to have a baby.”
‘Hans: “And, Daddy, when I’m married I’ll only have one if I want to, when I’m married to Mummy, and if I don’t want a baby, God won’t want it either, when I’m married.”
‘I: “Would you like to be married to Mummy?”
‘Hans: “Oh yes.” ‘
(Freud) It is easy to see that Hans’s enjoyment of his phantasy was interfered with by his uncertainty as to the part played by fathers and by his doubts as to whether the begetting of children would be under his control.