Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

with an absent love object. We say in ordinarylanguage that the small child forgets quickly.It really means that the material and emotionalneeds of the child cannot be satisfied from thedistance. The love of the infant for his motherisclosely bound up with the fulfilment of theseneeds. If the mother is absent, the child forms,after a short period of longing, a new relationshipto a substitute mother. The relation to thereal mother has become unsatisfactory and isdriven from consciousness.We can only surmise from later behaviourwhat changes it has undergone inside and whathas become of it. Normally this period of"mourning" lasts only a very few days. Afterthat, if the mother does not show herself again,the child settles down "quite happily". Wherethe psychic make-up of the child is more advancedor more complicated, adaptation takes alonger time. Some children will cling to thememory of their mother in a compulsive manner.We have given an example of this type ofbehaviour in the case of Patrick. Others willbuild up a constant phantasy of family life,itinputin the place of the lost reality and work it offplay.The most serious objection against war timeevacuation of young children without theirmothers is, therefore, that it produces artificialorphans. It is common knowledge that after the120