On the Development of the Girl's Wish for a Child

Freud's paper on female sexuality1 has put in a new light the discussion of the still unsolved problems of woman's instinctual development. We therefore hope that a clinical report on this subject might be of some interest although our findings do not bring new insights but rather illustrate known facts. The value of the material lies mainly in the fact that it was gathered in the direct observation and analysis of a little girl from the third to the fifth year of life while she was in great difficulties trying to resolve the preoedipal relation to her mother.

Woman's wish to bear a child, while not definitely and heterosexually constituted before the Oedipal phase, goes back to a long pregenital history of fixation to the mother. In the course of the treatment of this little girl, its origin and development became apparent in all its phases.

From her third to her fifth year, little Hertha was in an analysis which was interrupted by intermissions lasting several months. A wealth of colorful fantasies came to light, often contradicted, now interrupted, now resumed. It was not always easy to distinguish the essential from the transitory and the momentary; and the difficulties in working out a clear line of development were great. The intertwining of spontaneous and analytical processes of development added to these difficulties. Nevertheless, we gained insight into quite a few interesting facts on female sexuality in its early childhood phase.

Let us begin by reporting the most important anamnestic data. Little Hertha, a charming, very intelligent, but unstable