Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

This same state of affairs continued throughthe next two or three days with several additions.The nodding took on a more compulsiveand automatic character: "My mother willput on my overcoat and take me home again."Later an ever growing list of clothes thathis mother was supposed to put on him wasadded: "She will put on my overcoat and myleggings, she will zip up the zipper, she willput on my pixie hat."When the repetitions of this formula becamemonotonous and endless, somebody asked himwhether he could not stop saying it all overagain. Again Patrick tried to be the good boythat his mother wanted him to be. He stoppedrepeating the formula aloud but his movinglips showed that he was saying it over andover to himself.At the same time he substituted for thespoken words gestures that showed the positionof his pixie hat, the putting on of an imaginarycoat, the zipping of the zipper etc. Whatshowed as an expressive movement one day,was reduced the next to a mere abortive flickerof his fingers. While the other children weremostly busy with their toys, playing games,making music etc., Patrick, totally uninterested,would stand somewhere in a corner, movehis hands and lips with an absolutely tragicexpression on his face. These movements also100