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The case of a seven-and-a-half-year-old boy with petit mal has been presented in order to demonstrate the importance of exposing and managing unconscious destructive impulses and of the unconscious conflict in the treatment of this condition.
The basic conflict in petit mal is seen as one between extreme passivity and extreme aggressivity. While this conflict in itself is not considered specific for petit mal, the attitude of the patient towards this conflict, in which either outcome is associated with death, seems to be a specific dynamic factor in this condition.