Chapter 6 Summary and Analysis

Brooke Hayward's interesting account of a childhood experience describes an "anguished hate" toward her younger sister. Our desire to own our parents' love entirely is obvious with many children's attitudes toward a new sibling. Viorst describes the mechanisms of defense against rivalry as repression, reaction formation, isolation and denial. Some solutions for a child with the socially unacceptable hostile feelings toward a new sibling are regression, or escaping to an earlier stage of development; projection, or seeing our own feelings as those of the baby's; identification, such as trying to mother the baby, and turning the hostility against the self. Children also "undo" the damage, such as hitting the baby, then kissing him. Sublimation is when the child decides to replace the hostility with some other activity. De-identification allows siblings to assign differences to each other so each can feel superior...