Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

gether in a play-pen will bite each other, pulleach other's hair and steal each other's toyswithout regard for the other child's unhappiness.They are passing through a stage ofdevelopment where destruction and aggressionplay one of the leading parts. If we observeyoung children at play, we notice that theywill destroy their toys, pull off the arms andlegs of their dolls or soldiers, puncture theirballs, smash whatever is breakable, and willonly mind the result because complete destructionof the toy blocks further play. The moretheir strength and independence are growingthe more they will have to be watched so asnot to create too much damage, not to hurteach other or those weaker than themselves.We often say, half jokingly, that there is continualwar raging in a nursery We mean bythis, that at this time of life destructive andaggressive impulses are still at work in childrenin a manner in which they only recur ingrown-up life when they are let loose for thepurposes of war.It is one of the recognised aims of educationto deal with the aggressiveness of thechild's nature, i. e. in the course of the fir?tfour of five years to change the child's ownattitude towards these impulses in himself. Thewish to hurt people, and later the wish todestroy objects, undergo all sorts of changes.22