Marc, an intelligent and attractive boy, was 6 years old when his parents came to our clinic. His family consisted of his father (37 years), his mother (30 years), himself (6 years), and his sister, Jill (4 years). His parents were well educated. They were both rather rational people and also tried to raise their children in a rational and responsible way.
It appeared that, from babyhood, Marc loved external stimulation, but found it hard to amuse himself. When he could not yet walk or crawl he easily became frustrated. He often wanted to achieve things that were outside his range. As Marc was his mother’s eldest child, she gave him, from birth on, oceanic amounts of attention. His mother was a competent but insecure woman. She felt increasingly inadequate as a mother because Marc was demanding and difficult to please, and received little support from her husband in the upbringing of the children. When Marc’s sister, Jill, was born, Marc continued demanding as much of his mother’s attention as he did before. However, it was no longer physically possible for her to give Marc what he wanted. The mother was very happy with her daughter; Jill happened to be a very easy child. For the first time she experienced that taking care of a child was not necessarily a hard job. Marc developed an extreme jealousy. He occasionally showed sadistic (施虐的) behaviors toward his sister, which made the mother afraid to leave the children without her supervision. The mother constantly tried to fulfill her children’s wishes, but primarily functioned as a peacekeeper. She developed angry and anxious feelings toward her son, because he increasingly spoiled the atmosphere at home with his demanding and envious behavior. This also made her feel guilty. The father felt out of place and concentrated on his work. On the weekends, he sometimes took one child out (while the mother went away with the other child to prevent the many scenes and quarrels that occurred when the family was together). What can be said about Jill compared with Marc