Sixty-First Session

Richard met Mrs K. at the corner of the road; he said that he had very distressing news. At that moment Paul, who had driven him to the hotel, was passing in the car, and Richard pointed him out to Mrs K. Paul and Mrs K. nodded to each other; Richard was very pleased and said he had wanted Mrs K. to see Paul as he was really a very nice boy. Then he told Mrs K. that something awful had happened, but he was not going to talk about it to her until they were inside the house. He even waited until Mrs K. and he were seated (there was already an element of dramatization in that). He told Mrs K. that early in the morning he had found his father lying on the floor, ill and nearly fainting. He had called Mummy, who ‘burst into the room’ followed by Paul; they carried his father to the bedroom and put him to bed. He made this report dramatically, enjoyed the part he had played and his being able to relate such an important event, but at the same time he was clearly very upset. He added that he hoped his father would recover. The detailed description of how his father was being nursed showed that in his mind his father had turned into a baby and Richard into an adult who would look after the baby.1 He asked Mrs K. what she thought about all this, and was pleased when she expressed her sympathy. Richard also said that he would talk about what had happened to everybody in the hotel, but corrected himself and said, no, not to everybody, but to some people. He told Mrs K. that he would have to stay by himself in ‘X’ until the weekend. He added that it was a good thing he was so much better and less frightened and could stay by himself. Richard explained that there were two reasons for his father falling ill: ‘X’ was a stuffy place and also his father had worked too hard and had had a strenuous winter (here again he appeared genuinely concerned). Daddy was not going to be operated on. Richard had feared that he might be, but he would not; this was a go