ABSTRACT
When Thomas was still an infant he had a serious internal disorder and had to go to hospital. There was some doubt whether he would live, and he was in hospital for several months. He was no stranger to hospitals – there had been complications when he was born, and he had remained for some months after his mother went home. This time, however, a different kind of complication emerged, one that was to have a profound effect on his whole life. When Tommy eventually returned home, fully recovered, he found that he had been supplanted – there was a new baby who occupied his mother’s time and attention and Tommy resented it. In this he behaved like millions of other infants when another baby comes along, but in Tommy’s case the trouble was exacerbated by the fact that he had been wrenched – by illness – from his mother, without that process of emotional weaning by which the child learns first that he and his mother are separate beings, and second that although they are separate, the mother’s love and care are all-embracing and absolutely to be relied on.
