Problems in the Classroom: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Pupil-Teacher Relationship

In order to set the scene for thinking about problems in the relationships between pupils and teachers, I would like to begin with some examples of problems about which I have been consulted.

Four-year-old Gregory suddenly rushes at three-year-old Maria and viciously hits and kicks her. Maria bursts into tears and runs off in fright. Gregory runs after her but Mrs Jones, his nursery-school teacher, catches hold of him to stop him hurting Maria again; whereupon he begins screaming in apparent terror himself, clawing and scratching at Mrs Jones. It takes fifteen or twenty minutes to calm him down, by which time Mrs Jones feels exhausted and inept. On bad days similar scenes can occur five or six times, on good days maybe only once or twice. Mrs Jones and her colleagues watch Gregory very carefully but can never see what sets off his attacks. They begin to wonder if they are stupid or he is mad. Several times a term Gregory's mother bursts into the classroom, out for Mrs Jones’ blood because Gregory has come home and complained of being bullied and victimized. Mrs Jones is bewildered and angry. I have begun with this example of a young child because I want to emphasize how often problems begin in the pre-school years, though usually not as obviously as in Gregory's case.

We see a different kind of problem in eight-year-old Katherine who seems to be a bright girl, lively and energetic. She comes from a professional family who value education very highly and have given much thought to finding the right school for her, twice making changes because they thought she seemed unhappy. Katherine says she loves her present school and is keen to do well. But somehow her work never goes quite right. She makes silly mistakes in her maths, then, in her attempts to correct them, piles on further errors and ends up in tears of frustration and desperation. Her written work usually starts off well but then degenerates into inchoherent and disjointed phrases in increasingly messy and illeg