It would then be a hasty and disastrous conclusion if we were to infer from the widespread occurrence of insufficient emancipation from the family ties that it is our duty to endeavour to prevent the formation of these ties or to deal harshly and destructively with them as soon as they make their appearance. It would be as useless, as it would be cruel and unwise, were we to attempt to abolish the relationship of love and dependence that binds together parents and children, brothers and sisters: such a course, if it ever attained a reasonable measure of success, would almost certainly create evils greater than those which it was intended to avert. The love of the parents towards the child is assuredly one of the most essential and desirable features of a child's environment, if the child's moral and emotional development is to proceed harmoniously, spontaneously and easily. The lack of such love during the early years may give rise to a lasting sense of injury, a permanent feeling of a void or loss in some essential aspect of the emotional life, leading in its turn to an insatiable craving for the affection that was not forthcoming during that period of growth in which it was so urgently required; or again, it may cause a lifelong bitterness or hostility towards the parents (and through them towards mankind in general) for having withheld the love, appreciation and encouragement which the young child so much desires and needs; or once again, it may lead to a turning inward of the child's affections, when these meet with no response, so that the individual becomes self-centred and narcissistic, bestowing solely on himself the interest and affection which under happier circumstances would have been available for the pleasure and profit of those with whom he comes in contact; or finally it may lead to serious delinquency or be responsible for a whole career of crime. Far therefore from attempting to inhibit or destroy the love of parent and child, it becomes necessary on the contrary to emphasise the need, and indeed the moral right, of every child to develop its affections in this manner, and to urge again the plea now being put forward by the more thoughtful class of social reformers, that every child should be born in such conditions as to make it possible and likely that he will receive such measure of care and affection as he stands in need of. The unwanted child--the child who for social, psychological or economic reasons, is not welcomed by his parents,--starts life under a disadvantage in this respect, a disadvantage that may sometimes lead to the most serious consequences both to himself and to society[266].