Boarding School Syndrome

Dear Editor

Joy Schaverien's article ‘Boarding school syndrome: Broken attachments a hidden trauma’ (BJP 27(2): 138-55) raises some interesting questions. I found myself particularly intrigued with the issue raised by Schaverien of ‘why the depth of this trauma may, at times, pass unnoticed in psychotherapy’. Inspired by the article, I conducted a quick survey of my own practice over the last 20 years. I have seen far more women than men but of the men I have seen, at varying levels of intensity, just over 65% had attended boarding school. (The numbers are relatively small so I am not claiming this as any sort of scientific evidence. By way of comparison, only two of the women I saw during this time had been boarders.) Many had been sent away at a young age and those who had perhaps suffered most were those who had been sent from abroad to what was confusingly called ‘home’ to school, of ten having to negotiate aeroplane journeys which in the 1950s and 1960s frequently involved several changes en route. They would be plunged into a cold climate, in more ways than one, and dressed in strange clothes, not to mention all the other difficult issues raised by Schaverien in her paper.

However, by way of contrast with Duffell, Casement and Partridge (as quoted in the article) boarding school experiences figured large in our work together. I did not attend boarding school myself and would not see myself as particularly sensitive to this issue, nor do I claim special skill as a psychotherapist. So how does it come about that in some therapies it can ‘pass unnoticed’? Duffell, as quoted by Schaverien, says: ‘My psychotherapist never seemed to mention it’. But whose responsibility is it to bring things up? I was myself taken aback recently when a patient started talking about a severe traumatic event she had not mentioned in three years of therapy. When I was training, one of my tutors likened the process of therapy to badger watching. If you go after the badger he's likely to r