On pins and needles: the invasive treatment of a son

This is a case study of Corey, a 9-year-old latency age boy living with two mothers and without an everyday father in the home. Corey presented with separation anxieties stemming from needle insertions he was forced to endure at the hands of one of his mothers, a licensed pediatrician. His anxieties were exacerbated by the unpredictable rages of his father, whom he began to see more frequently and for a longer duration starting at age 8. The author concludes that despite the evidence of Corey's identifiable anxieties, she found no indications that he had failed or slowed in his oedipal development.