Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/51

 ON THE TECHNIQUE OF CHILD -ANALYSIS 305

of the parents would make it almost unbearable to hear from their own child the psycho-analytic revelations.

The relations between the analyst and the patient's brothers and sisters has also a bearing on the course of the treatment. Usually the younger ones are eager to share the patient's con- fidence, whereas the elder ones, owing to a secret feeling of envy and animosity, and a half-expectation of betrayal of themselves keep aloof. Both of these attitudes are judged with equal hostility by the patient, who watches with jealous mistrust the relations of his special confidant with his brothers and sisters and is unwilling to give up his phantasy of the analyst's hostile attitude towards the latter.

We may sum up our knowledge obtained from child-analysis in a few sentences. Almost always we find mistakes in education, through which a bad disposition or a harmful experience, instead of decreasing in destructive effects, is fostered. Too much strictness on the one hand, and too much leniency on the other, with nearly always alack of consistency in the upbringing, bring about these evils, from which both parents and children alike suffer. If the parents themselves were analysed, in all probability fewer children would be in need of analysis.

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