[203] Thus the analysis of dreams occurring during pregnancy would seem to show that a surprisingly large number of these have as their principal motive the death of the child which the mother carries in her womb. Nor do such death wishes on the part of the mother fail to manifest themselves on occasion in the mother's waking thoughts and actions. Abortion and attempts at abortion are of course extremely common (especially where, through ignorance, carelessness or legislative interference, the more humane method of preventive sexual intercourse is not practised), but, even after birth, attempts of one kind or another on the lives of children are by no means rare, even in civilised societies to-day. (The practice of infanticide in more primitive communities is of course notorious). I am assured by one who has good opportunities for observation on this matter that "practical child murder (by slow and safe methods) is far commoner than the newspaper reading public imagines: and it is usually the mother who attempts the process".
As a milder method of disposing of an unwanted child, a mother will often attempt to leave it in some institution for the care of children. So much is this the case that almost the first question the authorities of such institutions have to ask themselves, when the mother brings a child, is whether she is trying to get rid of it.
[204] See e.g. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," III, 298.
[205] See e. g. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," II, 302. "Taboo and the Perils of the Soul," 370.
[206] "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 658.
[207] "Studies of Childhood," 105.
[208] This is sometimes shown quite openly in poor families, where the parents "don't believe in their children having a better time than they did" and where the children will not infrequently console themselves for the sufferings they endure at the hands of their parents by the thought of what they in their turn when grown up, will do to their children.
Often however, the cruelty inflicted from this motive is rationalised as a desire to avoid spoiling the child and to prepare him for the rough time that he will have in later life. (Cp. this with the motives underlying the infliction of punishment at initiation ceremonies among primitive peoples, p. 83.).
[209] Cp. Brill, "Psychanalysis: Its Theory and Practical Application," 279ff.
[210] The identification of the child with its grandparent is of course not without effect upon the mind of the child himself, where it is reinforced by a variety of other motives, such as:—the wish to become the parent of his own parent (i. e. the corresponding notion to that in the mind of the child's parent which we have just been considering), the wish to dispense with his parent (cp. p. 109), the projection on to the grandparent of the grandiose ideas formerly entertained with regard to the parent (cp. p. 55), and finally the results of the happy relationship that often exists between child and grandparent (owing to the fact that the grandparents are as a rule less responsible for the child's upbringing and education and less stern and vigorous in the assertion of their authority). As a consequence there may arise in the child a strong tendency to imitate the grandparents—a tendency that may constitute an important factor in moulding the child's beliefs, attitudes, desires, and occupations. Cp. Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 652, ff.