On His Brother's Blindness

I want, in this paper, to look at a session from the therapy of a little boy, in which he elaborated, in great detail, his theories about the damage that he had caused by his attacks in phantasy, on mummy and inside babies. His anxiety about the power of his phantasised attacks was undoubtedly exacerbated by coincidental external events which I shall mention below.

Martin is a little boy, who came into twice-weekly therapy at the age of 4. The sessions I wish to describe occurred when he had been in therapy for just over six months.

He had had a very troubled early history, but the referral had actually been precipitated by his behaviour during his mother's next pregnancy, although the new baby was a few weeks old by the time he was first seen at the clinic. During the pregnancy he had made violent physical attacks on his mother's body - particularly her tummy. Such behaviour, although worsening during the pregnancy, had been a common occurrence as early as motor control would allow. He had also often appeared to be depressed, this being made manifest in a sad facial expression and moods of great lethargy. There were also dangerous actions which, if not suicidal, were perhaps tempting fate to punish him. For example, he ran out in front of a car, and when rescued by his mother told her that it was his life and if he wanted to kill himself then he would. He also said that if the new baby was a girl he would leave home. The baby was a boy and in fact once he had arrived Martin accepted him quite readily and showed him considerable affection. The temper tantrums and vigorous attempts to control his mother, however, continued virtually unabated.

Early History

The facts of his own early history are of some significance. His mother had an eclamptic fit - the result of toxemia of pregnancy - which probably started during labour itself. She was heavily sedated for at least two weeks thereafter. Martin screamed from birth and steadfastly refused to take the breast. T