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This brief communication concerns a little girl. The material that I am presenting was gained during the analysis of her mother, who had two children. The eldest, a boy, was seven and the little girl, whose case I am presenting, was at that time two years and seven months old.
In the last stage of her analysis, Mrs. M. came to her session and immediately told me that the previous day Lily had had a traumatic experience.
Lily had been riding in the car with the baby sitter, holding her doll on her lap. She had twisted the doll's head, and the head had suddenly popped off into the air. When the mother came home about an hour after this had happened, she found the child white and motionless. Only after a long time did she relax enough to cry, but could not be consoled.
At night Lily made all sorts of magic gestures when she took her other dolls to bed. She spat on them and murmured some words, which the mother could not quite understand. For several weeks Lily had difficulties in falling asleep.
Lily was completely accepted by her mother. The mother nursed her for six months. The weaning was smooth. The analysis was interrupted when Lily was born and during the first fifteen months the mother did not leave her at all. The toilet training was smooth, too. The most disturbing factor in Lily's life was her four-year-old older brother, who often handled her roughly, snatched things away from her and teased her a great deal. Lily admired him, but she was also very afraid of him. Before the doll incident happened, Lily had tried to urinate standing up like her brother. She had often seen her brother's genitals and had shown her envy very openly.
Lily's father was always kind to her, but his interest in the child was still rather limited at the time of the accident. He was more interested in the older boy. When Robert was little, the father had at times been rather critical of his wife's handling of the boy. His wife could not take his criticism and had at times