The child’s mind is much more public property than the adult’s. What troubles the child is shared with his family, his teachers and school chums. That is to say, the child is going through the educational process of acquiring a “personality” (and, alas, neurosis) while the adult has likely forgotten all the trials—at home or outside—that contributed to the later pain or tension bringing him to analysis. Put differently, the adult is troubled but usually can’t “remember” the exact sequence of events that are responsible for the trouble. The child often will describe quite readily what is happening about him, but may well not consider himself suffering or in danger—it is his parents or teachers who are concerned.
ATTRIBUTION:
Robert Coles (b. 1929), U.S. child psychiatrist, educator. “The Achievement of Anna Freud,” The Mind’s Fate, Little, Brown (1975).
