The Maid: Her Importance in Child Development

The child psychiatrist of today studies not only the patient, but also scrutinizes the child's environment: the influence of his mother, father, and siblings on the patient's development. Occasionally consideration is also given to grandparents, aunts, and uncles, especially if they live in the same household. Less attention has been paid in the literature to the maid in the house, with whom a child may spend many hours each day.

Freud (5) describes a patient who 'was looked after by a nurse, an uneducated old woman of peasant birth, with an untiring affection for him… His Nanya disillusioned him; she made a serious face (when he masturbated in her presence), and explained that that wasn't good: children who did that, she added, got a "wound" in the place… He became … a tormentor … his principal object was his beloved Nanya, and he knew how to cause her enough pain to make her burst into tears. In this way he revenged himself on her for the refusal he had met with…' In addition there was the English governess who turned out to be an eccentric and quarrelsome person, and, moreover, to be addicted to drink. To her he could 'express openly … the aversion … he had developed against his sister as a result of his seduction'.

In Berta Bornstein's case of Frankie (2) there was the good nurse 'who would never leave him alone' in contrast to his mother who left for the hospital and for a vacation. Frankie 'had exaggerated his affection to his nurse because he wanted to take revenge for the disappointments he had suffered at the hands of his mother'. In Bornstein's analysis of an obsessional child (3), Sherry showed 'her negative feelings toward her mother' by quarreling with the maid. Anna Freud (4) reports the case of a boy who 'furiously pealed the bell', experienced anxiety over doing so, and subsequently allayed the anxiety by upbraiding the maid before the latter could upbraid him. In