Marketing Myopia Article
March 30 2007
David,
There seems to be a touch of constructionism in the development of the Levitt
story.
LITTLE HANS AND COMMITMENT TO A STORY - PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Have you read the "Case of Little Hans" (Freud)?
Source: [Online]:
"The aim of the case study was to report the findings of the treatment of a
five-year-old boy for his phobia of horses. Freud was attempting to demonstrate
that the boys (Little Hans) fear of horses was related to his Oedipus complex.
Freud thought that, during the phallic stage (approximately between 3 and 6
years old), a boy develops an intense sexual love for his mothers. Because of
this, he sees his father as a rival, and wants to get rid of him. The father,
however, is far bigger and more powerful than the young boy, and so the child
develops a fear that, seeing him as a rival, his father will castrate him.
Because it is impossible to live with the continual castration-threat anxiety
provided by this conflict, the young boy develops a mechanism for coping with
it, using a defence mechanism known as 'identification with the aggressor'. He
stresses all the ways that he is similar to his father, adopting his father's
attitudes, mannerisms and actions, feeling that if his father sees him as
similar, he will not feel hostile towards him
Freud used a case study method to investigate Little Hans’
phobia. However the case study was actually carried out by the boy’s father who
was a friend and supporter of Freud. Freud probably only met the boy once. The
father reported to Freud via correspondence and Freud gave directions as how to
deal with the situation based on his interpretations of the father’s reports.
Freud noted that it was the special relationship between Hans and his father
that allowed the analysis to progress and for the discussions with the boy to be
so detailed and so intimate. The first reports of Hans are when he was 3 years
old.
The first reports of Hans are when he was 3 years old when he developed an
active interest in his ‘widdler’ (penis), and also those of other people. For
example on one occasion he asked ‘Mummy, have you got a widdler too?’ Throughout
this time, the main theme of his fantasies and dreams was widdlers and widdling.
When he was about three years and six months old his mother told him not to
touch his widdler or else she would call the doctor to come and cut it off.
When Hans was almost 5, Hans’ father wrote to Freud explaining his concerns
about Hans. He described the main problem as follows: ‘He is afraid a horse will
bite him in the street, and this fear seems somehow connected with his having
been frightened by a large penis’. The father went on to provide Freud with
extensive details of conversations with Hans. Together, Freud and the father
tried to understand what the boy was experiencing and undertook to resolve his
phobia of horses.
Hans’ anxieties and phobia continued and he was afraid to go out of the house
because of Hans’ anxieties and phobia continued and he was afraid to go out of
the house because of his phobia of horses. Hans told his father of a
dream/fantasy which his father summarized as follows: ‘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 I sat down
on top of the crumpled one’. Freud and the father interpreted the dream/fantasy
as being a reworking of the morning exchanges in the parental bed. Hans enjoyed
getting into his parents bed in a morning but his father often objected (the big
giraffe calling out because he had taken the crumpled giraffe - mother - away).
Both Freud and the father believed that the long neck of the giraffe was a
symbol for the large adult penis. However Hans rejected this idea.
When Hans was taken to see Freud, he was asked about the horses he had a phobia
of. Hans noted that he didn’t like horses with black bits around the mouth.
Freud believed that the horse was a symbol for his father, and the black bits
were a moustache. After the interview, the father recorded an exchange with Hans
where the boy said ‘Daddy don’t trot away from me!’;
Hans' became particularly frightened about horses falling over. He described to
his father an incident where he witnessed this happening (later confirmed by his
mother). Throughout this analysis the parents continued to record enormous
examples of conversations and the father asked many leading questions to help
the boy discover the root of his fear. For example: Father: When the horse fell
down did you think of your daddy?
Hans: Perhaps. Yes. It’s possible.
Hans’ fear of the horses started to decline and Freud believed that two final
fantasies marked a change in Hans and lead to a resolution of his conflicts and
anxieties.
Firstly, Hans had described a fantasy where he was married to his mother and was
playing with his own children. In this fantasy he had promoted his father to the
role of grandfather.
In the second fantasy, he described how a plumber came and first removed his
bottom and widdler and then gave him another one of each, but larger.
At age 19 the not so Little Hans appeared at Freud’s consulting room having read
his case history. Hans confirmed that he had suffered no troubles during
adolescence and that he was fit and well. He could not remember the discussions
with his father, and described how when he read his case history it ‘came to him
as something unknown’
Freud believed that the findings from the case study of Little Hans supported
his theories of child development.
In particular, the case study provided support for his theory of Oedipus Complex
in which the young boy develops an intense sexual love for his mother and
because of this, he sees his father as a rival and wants to get rid of him.
Freud believed that much of Hans’ problem came from the conflict caused by this
wish. The final fantasy of being married to his mother supported this idea.
According to Freud the cause of Little Hans’ phobia was related to his Oedipus
complex. Little Hans’, it was argued, was afraid of horses because the horse was
a symbol for his father. For example the black bits around the horses face
reminded the boy of his father’s moustache, the blinkers reminded him of his
fathers glasses and so on. Freud believed that as Little Hans was having sexual
fantasies about his mother he feared his father’s retaliation. Little Hans
therefore displaced his fear of his father onto horses who reminded him of his
father."
Freud used symbols to confirm a "his" story. Explicit events are tacitly
enjoined to predispositions. In Psych. III, we were given a more comprehensive
account of what happened to "Little Hans". A horse wagon collapsed, fell, and
Little Han's mortality was very nearly a memory. My story is derived from a time
at University having written a 5,000 word paper on Systematic Desensitisation
and the somatic effects of stress leading me to believe Hans had been frightened
and had developed an adverse autonomatic response to a stimulus, horses. (like
the bodily response of seeing a snake) I have a different story.
I think Levitt's account, like Freud's account, is a little too selective. Both
stories have sought verification of an entrenched position, drawing from a
pocket fall of symbols/marbles: "I will use my best steel Bodge (Oedipus
complex) and shoot real hard!"
Are my own symbols more potent? Perhaps, not. Just the same, I do feel one could
complement the basic symbolism with what is known about the nervous system and
stress biochemicals. (Of course, these are part of my story) Moreover, the
science associated with my story is itself is a powerful, nay, very powerful
symbol.
I think the way Freud and Levitt see things goes back to the from-to construct
posited by Polanyi. We all interpret meaning outwards from ourselves. Freud and
Han's father concurred as to tact-explicit symbolism. (Perhaps, Han's father had
a rule, "I will believe what Herr Professor Doctor Freud tells me".) What is
interesting is that Freud and Han's father (a medical doctor and disciple of
Freud, if I recall) didn't listen to own Han's perfectly rational story. Surely,
some of Levitt's readers felt uncomfortable with the cited examples. Emperor's
new clothes? How did/would Levitt respond?
When using the from-to construct, I think Polanyi would have it that the
storyteller cannot be separated from their story. Communication is not
ping-pong. Rather, I feel conjunctions are the overlapping of stories and
disjunctions are the absence of the same. Trust my interpretations do not seem
too weird to you?
I would need check, but if memory serves, Levitt wrote a highly regarded paper
on Customisation versus Standardisation. I will have a look. What you say about
many accolades for minor effort is noted. Sort of a Liberace Syndrome... I am
told Liberace was not a concert quality pianist, yet he was better known than
Rubenstein. Have you noted the popularity of matrices in the Marketing
literature? Excellent explanatory devices but often limited or misrepresentative
of complex phenomena.
Peter
Post script: When I was about 4 years old, my brother (ten years older) would
take me to the train station to watch the Sydney to Melbourne Spirit of Progress
thunder through at high speed... And I thought I was frightened by a 350 ton
Garrett shaking the platform to its foundations. ;-)
3/30/06
Peter. Of course the lesson of Marketing Myopia is only derived from a story.
Levitt was perhaps so committed to this story that he saw things in his own way.
Or he saw it the way he was told to see it. He may not even have written the
article. How many other articles has he written? Comparing this to his other
limited writings would be interesting. HBR rewrites all submissions. Such fame
for so little contribution is always the path of story devotees that will say
and do anything? One has to wonder? To encourage business to not diversify? It
seems to have been successful. David
3/30/06,
Peter Sinclair
David: I read with interest your comments on Theodore Levitt's renowned
"Marketing Myopia" paper. You provide excellent examples. Are you saying that
his lesson is wrong? ... not just the examples. That is, the idea of defining a
domain rather than a specific industry? Around 1880-1910, I guess there would
have been considerable inventiveness flowing from the Second Industrial
Revolution. There were theorists but also practical guys like Edison who would
try something a thousand times until it worked: Railways would have been a much
more developed industry than road transport. Had US rail companies backed the
very early horseless carriages, I wonder if a penchant towards "steam" related
engineering skills would have them look more towards steam cars? At that time,
(to be) successful automotive companies were engineering companies which
branched into both aircraft and automobiles. As you would know, BMW, Merc and
Saab have propellers as hood mascots. Rolls is also into cars and aircraft. What
might be being leveraged here is " mechanical engineering" not "transport". But
perhaps Levitt might see it otherwise. A case in point to support the
"mechanical engineering" might be some of the Japanese Zaibatsu. Some companies
(Toyoda/Toyota) moved from sowing machines to planes (WWII) and cars. Here
Levitt would have had Japanese companies provide services to the garment
industry and advise building garment stores, or something. Just the same, I do
see benefit in defining one's scope widely... However, enterprise knowledge,
learning curves, distinctive competencies and as you rightly point the Law have
to be recognized too. It is a complex story. Peter p.s. The sizable Bank I once
worked with, in the exuberant '80s, went on an international spending spree
buying up gold brokers, insurance companies and stock brokage houses. In 1992, a
badly burnt Bank declared, "we must go to core business"! Admittedly, there was
bad lending too.