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Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

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twelve days old. At first she visited regularlyevery week, then she began to come less often.When the child was four months she did not appearfor several weeks <strong>and</strong> when she cameagain she failed to recognise her baby. S<strong>and</strong>rahad lost a lot of her black hair in the meantime.She would only believe that the child wasreally hers after inspecting all the other childrenin their cots. After this visit she again stayedaway for several weeks. When she visited nextshe went straight to the cot, probably in order toprove to herself <strong>and</strong> to us that she knew herbaby. She picked S<strong>and</strong>ra up, hugged <strong>and</strong> kissedher but S<strong>and</strong>ra did not like it <strong>and</strong> shrieked withterror. It took hours to quiet her again. Whilethe nurse was holding her <strong>and</strong> trying to calmher, the mother paced up <strong>and</strong> down the roomlooking tense <strong>and</strong> worried. Every time she approached,the baby started shrieking again. Itwas quite evident to us that the child reacted tothe mother's violent emotion. The next timethe mother came,after barely a week, she approachedS<strong>and</strong>ra's cot very quietly; she did nottry to kiss her or to pick her up but played withher as she lay there <strong>and</strong> S<strong>and</strong>ra seemed quitecontented.The mother's feelings on those visitsare notdifficult to discern. S<strong>and</strong>ra is an unwanted <strong>and</strong>illegitimate baby, the mother's interest in her isuncertain <strong>and</strong> unreliable in the highest degree.171

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