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Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

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only one main punishment for anybody whooffends them, i.e. that this person should goaway <strong>and</strong> not return, which in childishlanguage means that he should die.In everydaylife at home these emotions are natural<strong>and</strong> necessary; they create small outbursts <strong>and</strong>settle down again. The father or mother whohave been wished dead atone moment are re-Oninstated in the child's affections in the next.the other h<strong>and</strong>, it is probably these violentnegative feelings of the child which determineits reaction to separation at this period. Thenegative feelings towards the parents are meantto be only transitory. Under the influence ofdaily contact they are held in check <strong>and</strong> neutralisedby the affection for the parents whichis constantly produced in answer to all thesatisfactions which the child receives.It does not seem so very dangerous to killa parent in phantasy if at the same timeoutward evidence shows that this same parentis alive <strong>and</strong>. well. But separation seems to bean intolerable confirmation of all these negativefeelings. Father <strong>and</strong> mother are nowreally gone. The child is frightened by theirabsence <strong>and</strong> suspects that their desertion maybe another punishment or even the consequenceof its own bad wishes. To overcomethis guilt it overstresses all the love which ithas ever felt for its parents. This turns the58

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