Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

In addition to the story, he said his motherwas not in the hospital any more. She was allwell and living in the country and after thewar was over, she would also get into a trainand come back.Bertie had evidently found a happy solutionfor the insoluble problem of his parents' fate.It is possible that all this talking representedthe contents of a dream which he had had atnight. But it is also possible that this story hadslowly prepared itself in him in the foregoingweeks and that he had shifted and reshifted allthe facts and, with the help of wish phantasies,had altered the events to his own satisfaction.We realise that the fact of his father's deathis denied from the beginning; his mother's illnesswhich he had accepted first as a fact hasalso been denied. The phantasy of himself asthe hero who finds his father and triumphantlyreturns him to the mother has originated probablyat the time of his mother's search when hetried his best to comfort her.Wherever an anxious situation arises, reassuranceis immediately given by stress on the oppositefact. He tightly clenches his hands in theeffort to show the strength and safety of theunderground station. The fullfillment of allwishes , i.e. the reunion of the family is promisedfor a vague future.Talk about these matters disappeared com-128