You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Richard arrived a few minutes late and was very upset. He told Mrs K. he had been home and that instead of going straight from the bus to her, he had first gone with his mother to the hotel; this had made him late. (Mrs K. gathered that he was afraid of a conflict between his mother and her.1) He said he had been very frightened of children on the road. One little evacuee girl with red hair had asked him whether he was Italian (there were a number of Italians in ‘X’) and this frightened and worried him; he thought the Italians, being Hitler's friends, were treacherous and bad.
Mrs K. interpreted his worry about a possible conflict between Mummy and herself, and that he might have felt that way about trouble between his parents.
Richard said that Daddy and Mummy never quarrelled, but there was much trouble between Nurse and Cook. (His mother had mentioned to me that the quarrels between the nurse and the cook, which led to the nurse leaving, had very much upset Richard and that in fact he had never forgiven the cook, who was still with them.) … He again chose a country; at first he said he would choose Estonia, but then decided that because Estonia was hostile to the Poles, he did not want it and chose ‘little Latvia’ instead.2 Meanwhile he again turned the electric fire on and off, looked at the little stools in the room, and beat them to get the dust out.
Mrs K. interpreted that although Richard thought there never was a quarrel between his parents, he may nonetheless have been much concerned about the possibility of disagreement between them. This fear would increase his wish to have a younger sister or brother (little Latvia) to turn to and to be his ally, both because he