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Dear Frau Andreas
What I can give from a distance is gladly at your disposal. There is no smoke without fire; it is therefore impossible that the little girl
has not experienced something which has determined her pavor. Also, as we know, it is of no avail to shut Beauty away in a tower; the god will nevertheless find his way to her (Danaë).96 But what your little patient experienced need not have been anything very much or out of the ordinary. To take the simplest case, she had no doubt indulged in masturbation before going to sleep, until her illness came and imposed a prohibition. Illnesses are interpreted by children just as by primitive peoples as punishment for sin; they stir the consciousness of guilt. The process can also have been a much more complicated one: to take the nearest variation of this simple explanation, it might be that she first discovered masturbation as a consolation during the bad time of her illness, and has now given it up, but is still fighting the temptation; or she may still be in the process of ridding herself of the habit. These possibilities—also the results of more drastic experiences or causes of which we know nothing—are not easy to distinguish in their effect, and I should be interested to hear which is the real one.
For the kind therapist who has gained access to this child in so charming a way two courses in technique lie open: either to wait patiently and continue the treatment until the child has formed a still stronger attachment and itself begins to communicate—that would be the more convincing experience—or in complete confidence in the accuracy of your surmise to tell it to the child yourself. This is the shorter way. You would then have to say that you had made the above-mentioned discovery in your own case, and that it had then stopped; and having surmounted the initial negative response of the child you would then be able to pursue its further answers until you had uncovered the true facts of the case.
Wishing you comple