Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/34

 288 H. VON HUG-HELLMUTH

analyst, as the grown-up does, but owing to the wish of his par- ents and only then (and herein he resembles the grown-up) when all other means have proved futile.

2. The child is in the midst of the very experiences which are causing his illness. The grown-up suffers from past ex- periences, the child from present ones; and his ever-changing experiences create a perpetually-changing relationship between him- self and his surroundings.

3. The child, unlike the adult man (but very often in accordan^ce with the attitude of women patients), has no desire at all to change himself or to give up his present attitude towards his external surroundings. His 'naughtiness' creates in him a sense of great self-importance, indeed a feeling of omnipotence, owing to which he tyrannizes over the people who surround him, and his narcissism which rejoices in the continual attention which he wins from his surroundings will not allow him to give up his wickedness. To the child with strong sadistic tendencies as well as to the child with pronounced masochism, constantly recurring outbursts of fury and punishments are essential to his neurotic personality. We must also include those fortunate natures who adapt themselves even as children to every different phase of life, who remember only the pleasure of 'making it up' in the con- tinual quarrels of childhood, and who take a temporary exile in a boarding-school as a pleasant change — we mean, in short, those who can adapt themselves to every change in their envir- onment.

For instance, a small boy, a habitual pilferer, whom I had for treatment, took all his experiences in school and at home just as 'a lark' and squared his conscience in regard to* his complete failure at school with the reflection: 'My father did not like learn- ing either, and yet we are doing so well.' Another twelve-year old boy, a little truant, whom I analysed in the Vienna children's clinic, enjoyed his stay there so much, on account of the nice food he got, that in spite of his often expressed longing for his parents, he had no desire whatever to depart.

Experience has taught me that girls at the age of puberty are more helpless when confronted by conflicts in the home hfe, and more sensitive to them, than are boys of the same age. The ex- planation of this lies partly in the fact that the girl has stronger links with her home Hfe on account of her education aiming more