ABSTRACT
The familiar episode of bedtime anxiety emerges from a complex web of feelings that links the child to his parents in the early Oedipal stage. Early Oedipal desires are coupled with feelings of guilt and castration and, in the case of the little girl, are in part the result of an attempt to take the penis-object that the child phantasizes the mother contains within her body. Catherine's behaviour reflected oral and anal anxieties in their early Oedipal form, arising at a period of unavoidable family strain. Excessive concern by parents about their daughters' activity leads to the daughters having anxiety about bodily injury and deprives them of the potential joy and pride in their bodies. The child phantasizes that the desirable objects, which have been taken from the parents, need to be returned, and this creates anxiety for the child in relation to his or her parents.
