ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what happens to the older child, in adulthood, when the intruder, the new sibling, has a birth defect or physical or emotional illness. Lisa's brothers Joe and Mark were physically healthy individuals. Dr. Albert's brother was ill. The case of Mira, which the chapter presents, demonstrates how an older sibling's disturbing symptoms and character traits related directly to her experience of having a mongoloid younger brother. When Mira was 4 years old she hit a neighborhood boy with an iron bar on the head while they were "playing." Mira, much older now than when Bernd arrived, had real potentiality to kill her new sibling who, in her mind, could do to her what Bernd had done. Because of the untamed aggressions of her childhood, in her mind she had mixed sexuality with aggression.
