Michael Burlingham - Dorothy Burlingham's grandson: She thought that she could come in and enter their environment essentially, because they were children you see and didn't have independent lives of their own, she could go talk to the parents or the mother, she could go to the schools she could influence their real world, the actual external world to change their lives to help them. And to change them as people? I think that was part of what her idea was, she felt that she could change them.
From her analysis of the Burlingham children Anna Freud developed a theory of how to control the inner drives. It was simple - you taught the children to conform to the rules of society. But this more than just moral guidance. Anna Freud believed if children like the Burlinghams strictly followed the rules of accepted social conduct then as they grew up the conscious part of their mind, what was called the ego, would be greatly strengthened in its struggle to control the unconscious. But if children did not conform their ego would be weak and they would be prey to the dangerous forces of the unconscious.
Michael Burlingham - Dorothy Burlingham's grandson: In my father's case they were concerned that he would be a homosexual and so a lot of their efforts went into preventing or trying to stop my father from becoming a homosexual. Whether or not he would have or did you know is unknown to me. Why would they want to stop that? Because they felt it was abnormal, it wasn't a normal way to develop. They wanted to have him develop along lines that society recognized as normal because if you didn't then you would be under control of forces that you don't understand, that you are not even aware of.