The Drama of the Gifted Child (The Search for the True Self)

the 21st of January to the 5th of June he lived wholly
in the boys' house and only spent Sundays with us. He
behaved well there but came home pale, thin and depressed.
The effects are decidedly good and salutary.
He is much easier to manage now." (1966, pp. 13-14)
The child now was seven years old. 1
On November 14, 1883, his father, Johannes Hesse,
writes:
Hermann, who was considered almost a model of good behavior
in the boys' house is sometimes hardly to be borne.
Though it would be very humiliating for us [!], I am earnestly
considering whether we should not place him in an
institution or another household. We are too nervous and
weak for him, and the whole household [is] too undisciplined
and irregular. He seems to be gifted for everything:
he observes the moon and the clouds, extemporizes for long
periods on the harmonium, draws wonderful pictures with
pencil or pen, can sing quite well when he wants to, and is
never at a loss for a rhyme. 2 (1966, p. 13)
In the strongly idealized picture of his childhood and his
parents, which we encounter in Hermann Lauscher, 3 Hesse
has completely abandoned the original, rebellious, "difficult,"
and for his parents troublesome, child he once was.
He had no way to accommodate this important part of his
self and so was forced to expel it. Perhaps this is why his
1 Italics added.
2 Italics added.
3 When my childhood at times stirs my heart, it is like a goldframed,
deep-toned picture in which predominates a wealth of chestnuts
and alders, an indescribably delightful morning light and a background
of splendid mountains. All the hours in my life, in which I was allowed
a short period of peace, forgetful of the world; all the lonely walks,
which I took over beautiful mountains; all the moments in which an
unexpected happiness, or love without desire, carried me away from
yesterday and tomorrow; all these can be given no more precious name
than when I compare them with this green picture of my earliest life.
(Gesammelte Werke, vol. I, Frankfurt: M. Suhrkamp, 1970, p. 218.)
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