View report page

37
her and again she herself was able to put into words the dilemma
of the child caught between two conflicting ethical systems. As
she was intelligent she was pleased to get on to the discussion
of the general problem of aggression in social life and came to see
that she was over-simplifying a very complex issue. What was
important here was that her sincerely held views were treated
with absolute sympathy and respect and that she was encouraged
to clarify a set of ideas which previously she had not dared to
express for fear of ridicule. Her feeling that we would meet her
on her own ground and allow her to reach conclusions that followed
from her own premises gave her great confidence. Eventually
she was able to see that her perpetual preoccupation with moral
values imposed a heavy strain on a young child and that her anxiety
to make him what he ought to be interfered with her capacity
to see him as he was. Finally there was a very much improved
relationship between all three members of the family. A brief
description cannot do justice to the gradual unfolding of a case
of this sort. One or two -significant features have been singled
out to try to show the nature of the work that is done with the
mother. Few cases can be treated on such an "intellectual"
level as this one, but the aim in every case is to assist the mother
to see for herself how her difficulties have arisen and to see for
herself how much she can do to resolve them.
Treatment of the child has the same aims, though often they
must be only partially realised because words are not the child's
medium of expression. The child's problems are, however, usually
simpler than the adults'. He loves, he hates, he fears, he suffers
from loss of love, he feels wicked. These intense crude emotions
have been expressed in the behaviour which brought him to the
clinic. In the clinic they can be expressed in gamfes, in drama,
in pictures or in stories. An elaborate symbolism is otfen used
to cover up the meaning of the child's activities. A skilled therapist
can discover the hidden meaning, but a big part of the therapist's
skill is in knowing when and where and how much to interpret
in plain words to the child. It will also be obvious that it is only
in a proportion of cases that treatment along these lines can be
successful. In about a quarter of the cases it is impossible to
re-establish good child/parent relationships because, owing to
death, illness or other misfortune, there is no effective parent
to whom the child could make a relationship.
To sum up, the manifestations of maladjustment in children
dealt with are in every case the outcome of an interaction between
the child's innate endowment and the misfortunes to which he
has been subjected in the course of his life. There are three ways
in which he can re-act to his misfortunes:
(1) By aggression. The so-called "behaviour problems" all
resolve themselves into acts of rebellion and hostility against the