Case XII. ‘Milton’ aet 8 Years

I end this second part with the case of a boy who went home after the first therapeutic consultation with a developmental block removed. The various members of the household found themselves with a child who had been released and who could use them more freely, and they behaved differently towards the child. The family does the cure of a child like this in the course of the subsequent weeks and months, although without the therapeutic consultation they would not have been able to do this, but would have remained available but unused.

The mother of this boy wrote to me a letter in which she stated the problem as seen from her point of view. The main trouble as she saw it was that Milton, who was the eldest child, had never really accepted the arrival of the twin brother and sister, who were born when he was two years old. She wrote: ‘Their birth threw him into utter turmoil which manifested itself in many obvious and wretched ways. He became and has remained heavily dependent on me and involved with me.’ There were certain other pathological features such as a predilection for sadomasochistic situations and the beginnings of a pleasure in the idea of whipping. Also he showed a potential for pervert tendencies such as a compulsion to look at and to feel girls' pants. While he tended to be bullying and aggressive at home he was on the whole placatory and nervous at school, and not very popular. In his actual school work he was doing well, showing a special interest in history and English. The mother added that she had had some treatment herself, and that although this had enabled her to deal better than previously with the other children, her improvement had not made a difference to her management of these tendencies in Milton which she was reporting.