ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about a ten-year-old boy Alex. Alex’s parents were divorced and his mother lived with a new partner, with whom she had given birth to another child. Every Friday she took Alex to visit her parents’ home and, quite often, Alex would stay with his grandparents for several days. Alex’s problems had led both Mrs A and her parents to request repeated consultations that led to several referrals to specialists, but no definite organic pathology had ever been identified. He told to the author about his sleepwalking and “quickening”—a type of tremor and shaking that affected limbs and various other muscles. He was staying at his father’s place when this had happened for the first time: a totally unusual, violent storm had occurred that night and Alex tried to go to his father’s bedroom to ask for help, but he found the door locked and was afraid of knocking at the door or calling his father.
