"Rat Man" was the nickname given by Sigmund Freud to a patient whose 'case history' was published as Bemerkungen über einen Fall von Zwangsneurose (1909). The nickname derives from the fact that the patient developed a series of obsessive phantasies in which, In Freud's words, "rats had acquired a series of symbolic meanings, to which...fresh ones were continually being added".
To protect the anonymity of patients, psychoanalytic case-studies would usually withhold or disguise the names of the individuals concerned ('Anna O'; 'Little Hans'; 'Wolf Man', etc.). Recent researchers have decided that the "Rat Man" was in fact a clever lawyer named Ernst Lanzer (1878–1914)—though many other sources maintain that the man's name was Paul Lorenz.
Read more about Rat Man: 'Notes Upon A Case of Obsessional Neurosis', Influence, Criticism of Freud
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