As a consequence of the greater competence of the ego, open methods of acting out like playing and drawing are of less importance for psychoanalysis in the latency period. On the other hand children of that age are not yet ready to use free association and direct communication as the means of expressing themselves. Therefore daydreams and fantasies are very important. This material is mostly readily offered because its unconscious meaning is unknown to the child.

The accessibility of this material is demonstrated from the psychoanalysis of a six-year-old girl who was brought to the analyst on account of depressions and temper tantrums. It is demonstrated how, with the aid of fantasies, the different conflicts of the child are made tangible and open to interpretation and how therapeutic use is made of them. The material that is offered in that way comprises the child's wooing of the mother, her jealousy of her brother, her sexual theories and anxieties and fantasies about the primal scene.