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The analysis is described of a four-year-old child who with younger siblings had witnessed the murder of her mother by her father, a paranoid schizophrenic. She alone of the children who were subsequently fostered by a relative showed signs of serious reaction to the event. She organized the other children to reenact the murder in play and showed a compulsive need to tell strangers of the event while preserving silence at home about it. She 'confessed' to other children her guilt at being implicated. Symptoms continued till the beginning of analysis, nine months afterwards. The history showed that Ellen's disturbance long antedated the breakup of her family and that she was already a quarrelsome impulsive child with strong tendencies to manoeuvre people and to plot and scheme to control every situation. Contributory events were the birth of siblings in quick succession at an early age, and the early necessity for the mother to withdraw needed care. Marked restriction of her motility and continued subjection to the primal scene had occurred.
The analysis indicated how one element of the horrifying event after another became involved with the child's own fantasy world, thereby receiving