Note 203 — Chapter XIV · THE ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

Thus the analysis of dreams occurring during pregnancy would seem to show that a surprisingly large number of these have as their principal motive the death of the child which the mother carries in her womb. Nor do such death wishes on the part of the mother fail to manifest themselves on occasion in the mother's waking thoughts and actions. Abortion and attempts at abortion are of course extremely common (especially where, through ignorance, carelessness or legislative interference, the more humane method of preventive sexual intercourse is not practised), but, even after birth, attempts of one kind or another on the lives of children are by no means rare, even in civilised societies to-day. (The practice of infanticide in more primitive communities is of course notorious). I am assured by one who has good opportunities for observation on this matter that "practical child murder (by slow and safe methods) is far commoner than the newspaper reading public imagines: and it is usually the mother who attempts the process".

As a milder method of disposing of an unwanted child, a mother will often attempt to leave it in some institution for the care of children. So much is this the case that almost the first question the authorities of such institutions have to ask themselves, when the mother brings a child, is whether she is trying to get rid of it.