Note 265 — Chapter XVIII · ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS—LOVE AND HATE ASPECTS

It would seem that children who have never known their parents or any normal parent substitutes, such as those who are brought up entirely in orphanages and other institutions, nevertheless do actually find corresponding objects on to whom their parent-regarding tendencies can be directed; if not in reality, at least in imagination—imagination that tends to find a real equivalent as soon as a suitable object presents itself. This is amusingly and instructively illustrated in Jean Webster's recently successful book and play "Daddy Long Legs".