Childhood: R. G. Gordon. The Duties of the Physician to the Delinquent Child. Psyche, 1924, Vol. IV, p. 333.

Apart from the treatment of delinquency the rôle of the physician should be to act in an advisory capacity to the judge or schoolmaster. In considering the individuality of the delinquent, Gordon notes that delinquents cannot be pigeonholed into classes. An offence may be a direct expression of an impulse or the symbolic representation of it, the difference depending on whether the impulse is repressed or not. In dealing with these cases a plea is made for a broader outlook, and the advisory physician, to avoid an unintelligent routine, should have other interests and experiences bearing on the problem. An institute with trained women workers for the treatment of delinquency is advisable. The physician should avoid being dominated by any particular creed, and his functions should be guided by the underlying factors in delinquency. It should be recognized that we are all potential delinquents and delinquency is caused by a failure in the control of instinctive tendencies. This failure may be due to faulty development or to destruction of brain tissue. Abnormal bodily development may influence brain function directly or indirectly, by producing psychic compensations for organ inferiorities. Integration may be impossible because the dispositions are so disproportionately present. Other factors are considered, among which may be mentioned phantasy as a cause of truancy, conflict between active and passive or introvert and extrovert tendencies. Lloyd Morgan's view that certain dispositions combine to form new emergents is commented on, and it is suggested that these aberrant emergents may underlie criminal behaviour. Investigation has shown that it is possible to utilize the impulsions connected with delinquency in order to produce desirable behaviour. Creative work should be encouraged