Children look towards adult life as to a Golden Age. ‘When I am grown-up I shall do just as I like.’ ‘I shall never be naughty again.’ They believe that truly adult life is reached when their majority is attained. Working-class children grow up sooner and for them the age of independence begins at fourteen when they go out into the world as wage earners.

Before adult years have come the dream has faded to some extent. Adolescents see with a clear eye and realize that their elders are not perfect beings. They notice the hasty tempers, the jealousies, and the lack of truth to which so many grown-ups are prone. They see that ‘naughtiness’ can be found in the adult as well as in the young, though often the children are punished for the faults that their elders excuse or ignore in themselves.

Maturity is not a state to which all adults inevitably attain. It is the possession of the few, and there are many who go through life with the outlook and reactions of children. This childishness must not be confounded with a childlike attitude. It is rather the immaturity of childhood without the charm of that state that is displayed and this is especially true of neurotics.