ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the struggle towards independence of the little boy. The author started her observation when Laurie had just turned 3 years of age. During the initial meeting with Tania, his mother, she described him as an “interesting child” who had an “obsession with cars”. He could name them exactly, including not only their make, but also their model. The author illustrates how cars, both real and imaginary, dominated his early fantasies and how they represented an underlying preoccupation with becoming more separate from his parents. She shows how he expressed in his play a clear move from a phantasy of being very much fused and “entangled” with his parents, to starting to find a place of his own. Laurie’s parents are both in their early- to mid-thirties. They had been together for some time before Laurie was born.