Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

anxiety. It is, above everything else, a reactionto the death of the father.REACTION TO EVACUATIONThe war acquires comparatively little significancefor children so long as it only threatenstheir lives, disturbs their material comfort orcuts their food rations. It becomes enormouslysignificant the moment u^it breaks up family lifeand uproots the first emotional attachments ofthe child within the family group. Londonchildren, therefore, were on the whole muchless upset by bombing than by evacuation tothe country as a protection against it.The reasons for and against evacuation werewidely discussed during the first year of thewar in England. Interest in the psychologicalreactions of the children receded into the backgroundwhen, in the second year, the air raidson London demonstrated against all possibleobjections the practical need for children'sevacuation. In order to survey completely allthe psychological problems involved, the subjectwould have to be studied from variousangles.There is an interesting social problem involvedin billeting.Children who are billetedon householders who are either above or belowthe social and financial status of their parentswill be very conscious of the difference. If37