“What is it that becomes palpable for us when little Hans starts coming out with his fantasies one-by-one (…)? From the moment the shadow of the horse is looming over him, gradually enters a stage-set that takes on an order and organisation, that is erected around him, but which captures him much more than being developed by him. What we see is the articulated aspect by which this delusion develops.
I’ve said delusion. It slipped out almost as a parapraxis because what is going on here has nothing to do with a psychosis, yet the term is not inappropriate.”
The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book IV: The Object Relation (1956-1957). Cambridge: Polity, 2021, pp. 283-284.