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This remarkable paper describes in detail the psychoanalytic treatment of an asthmatic child. The major part of the work deals with the analysis of fifty-four drawings by the patient (reproduced in the paper).
The boy's illness began at the age of four, treatment was started when he was twelve, and he was discharged as cured at fourteen. The symptoms began shortly after the boy's parents were divorced, as an unconscious expression of his effort to keep them together. Rather than succeeding, the asthma evoked hostility from both parents toward him. The transformation of the resulting 'masochism' into a necessary, self-protective aggression during therapy is depicted in the drawings. The negative Oedipus complex appeared in the same medium. One day the patient suddenly understood the etiology of his symptomatology when he discovered for himself the mechanism by which he had introjected his 'bad mother'. He thereupon passed from the anal stage to the genital and all symptoms disappeared. He accepted his parents' attitudes toward each other, handled them in such a way as to create a pleasant relationship between them and himself, and became a 'well-adjusted person'.