Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/41

 ON THE TECHNIQUE OF CHILD -ANALYSIS 295

and character traits; and in the case of these very young patients, very often play will enact an important part throughout the whole treatment.

A seven year old boy, who suffered from severe insomnia accompanied with compulsive laughter and tic, which made me suspect he had watched the parental sex-life, manifested during daytime complete apathy: he lay on the carpet for hours without speaking or playing; he ate a great deal but without enjoyment or selection, and apparently *tiad lost quite suddenly his former strongly-marked desire for caresses. In the analysis he would allow me to play with his toys for the whole hour, with scarcely any reaction on his part, and seldom gave me answer, so that it was difficult to decide whether he had taken in at all that I said. In one of the first treatment hours I told him about a little boy who would not go to sleep at night, and made such a noise that his parents could not sleep either. I told also how little Rudi made a noise too in the afternoons when his father wanted to rest; so his father became angry and Rudi was whipped (Little Hans's reaction to this was to run to the sideboard and take down a 'Krampus' ^ and to beat me on tlie arm, saying: ' You are naughty!'). I went on to tell how Rudi was then cross with his father, and wished his father were somewliere else (To this the reaction was: ff rank, was on active service throughout the war, and had only
 * My father is at the war'. Actually his father, an officer of high

p| returned to his family in Vienna on short leave). Suddenly Hans

ti| took his litde gun and said: 'Pufif, puff.'

The next day his death-wishes towards his father showed themselves more clearly. He was playing with his toy motor-car and several times ran over the chauffeur, whom I had made out to be little RudL's father. I pretended to telephone the news of his father's accident to the little boy. Rudi was supposed to weep bitterly at the news, and then I said that although Rudi had for- merly wished his strict father away, now he felt very sad, because in spite of this wish, he really loved his father very much. The f§ reaction of Uttle Hans was very characteristic; he listened to me,

lying on the floor, asking me eagerly now and then, 'What does little Rudi do next?' Suddenly he jumped up and ran out of the room. On the following day he reacted in the same way when our game was repeated, at his request. In his sudden going out
 * The dressed-up figure of a little man, holding a birch-rod.


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