Twenty-Sixth Session

Richard arrived punctually and was much less worried. He was eager to show Mrs K. what was in his attaché case: the fleet and a pair of new slippers which his mother wanted him to change into from his rubber boots. He admired his slippers, told Mrs K. what they had cost, asked her to touch them and feel how soft and nice they were. Then he put out the fleet. He told Mrs K. that his mother

was in bed. She had a sore throat and he was very concerned. He said he was looking after her, so he was doing his ‘bit’, wasn't he? He had also told his mother about the question he had put to Mrs K. yesterday—whether she would let him go earlier if he were frightened and wanted to run away. Mummy said that this was a silly idea and Richard thought so himself; for he had no reason to run away, because Mrs K. was very nice.

Mrs K. interpreted that three sessions previously he had been frightened of her because she represented the ‘wicked brute’ (the football) containing the foreign son and husband, the brute-father. He was also afraid that she was injured by the Hitler-father inside her. This linked with his fear of the united fighting parents inside him, the two long sharp pencils that were so mixed up that he did not know which was father or mother.

Richard, as so often, had been listening to noises on the road, asking Mrs K. to be silent so that he could hear. He was again ‘on guard’ against the hostile children who were passing. (In fact, Richard was scarcely ever without this fear, as he repeatedly admitted, even when he felt protected by Mrs K.)

Mrs K. drew his attention to this constant anxiety.

Richard agreed and told her that recently, when he was travelling by bus with Mummy, a boy of his own age had come in and Richard at once felt frightened; he looked fiercely at the boy and the boy looked at him. Richard added that he did not wish to attack the boy, but he felt he might have to attack him to prevent an attack on himself. Then he reflected t