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Beneath the stream of the adult life childhood undercurrents flow on steadily, not infrequently betraying their presence by eddies on the surface; of recent years the ever-widening recognition of this principle has been a prominent feature of psychopathological research. To detect these undercurrents, to give its due value to each delicate component force in the adult life is a task requiring a nice discrimination. The validity of the conclusions in the individual case can only be established by means of a wide corroborative material, and to those unfamiliar with this material the conclusions often seem arbitrary; this explains in part the scepticism shown with regard to many of the results derived from the intensive study of the psychoneuroses in the adult. A genetic psychology, based on the more profound insight into the mechanisms of the adult psycho-neuroses, must be supported by the direct study of normal and of neurotic children. An example of such a study is the well-known communication of Freud on the phobia of five-year-old Hans.2
This study, however, loses much of its value owing to the indiscreet questioning of the father and the over-refined interpretations of Freud; in order to be convincing, data must be obtained more spontaneously and must not require such an elaborate interpretation.
The aim of the present communication is to present the case of a girl, who was studied from the age of seven to the age of eleven at the dispensary; at the end of that period she spontaneously gave the key to her symptoms, the meaning of which had been long suspected.