According to Freud, one of the most traumatic events in a child’s early life can be watching his mother leave. Observing one child who, following his mother’s departure, would always joyfully fling his toys far away only to reel them back in and do it all over again, Freud deduced that this “game” was in fact a reenactment of the child’s trauma. And by replacing the absence of his mother with that of an object only to recover it immediately allowed the boy to conquer his anguish, Freud theorized. Perhaps this was why this peculiar child never raised a fuss when his…