Facing the damage together: some reflections arising from the treatment in psychotherapy of a severely mentally handicapped child

In Shakespeare’s play Richard III, the Duchess of York, his mother, complains resentfully: Thou cam’st on earth to make the earth my hell. A grievous burden was thy birth to me. Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy; Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild and furious; [Richard III, IV.iv.167–170]