Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

mother into the triumphant statement. "I knowall about my father. He has been killed andhe will never come back".The mother answered with a fit of anger,closely questioning the child who had toldher"such a lie".The child only repeated: "You have toldme yourself through your behaviour". But inthe end the mother won.She made the child repeat: "The father isin Scotland and will certainly return".The little girl repeated the words after herwith a sullen expression and had to promisenever to say or think it otherwise. The childrenof this family show the effects of thisdiscrepancybetween the truth they know and feel andthe legend they are forced to adopt in wild andunruly behaviour and general contempt for thegrown up world.The other little girl, Sheila, the little charwomenof three and a half years, reacts toevery outing with her mother, especially whenit takes her back to the father's world witha new excess of washing, scrubbing and lookingafter the other children, far beyond heryears.There is no doubt that all these children canbe helped by an open discussion of their misfortune.But at the moment it cannot be doneagainst the mothers' wishes and it will takeHi