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Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

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they do. When it is naturally cruel, they wantit to feel pity. Its first sexual impulses areinterfered with when it tries to satisfy itselfon the its own body; it certainly finds no satisfactionwhen it turns towards its parents. Thecuriosity of the child is<strong>and</strong> itsleft largely unsatisfied,natural desire to be admired is criticisedas a wish to "show off." In this first educationof the child, the parents do not usually applycompulsion; they simply make use of the dependenceof the child <strong>and</strong> of its love for father<strong>and</strong> mother. The child is quite helpless in theh<strong>and</strong>s of the parents; therefore, even a slightpunishment will frighten it into obedience.The parents' love is all-important to the child;therefore it is used as a reward when the childis "good" <strong>and</strong> its withdrawal is threatenedwhen the child is "naughty." In this unequalbattle nothing is left to the child in the end butto give in <strong>and</strong> become civilised.These two factors, disappointment in earlylove <strong>and</strong> the pressure of education, threaten tospoil the pleasantness of the relations betweenchild <strong>and</strong> parent. Whenever the child is deniedsome pleasure it becomes resentful, whenit is too much restricted it turns obstinate.When it is punished it hates the parents; butit can never st<strong>and</strong> hating father or motherwithout feeling the strongest guilt about it<strong>Children</strong> are quick in their anger <strong>and</strong> know57

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