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From a material of 600 yearly admissions, ranging in age from two to thirteen years, to the Children's Observation Ward of Bellevue Hospital, the author describes, from group application to problem children, the diagnostic and therapeutic uses of puppetry. The hand-manipulated puppet of the Punch and Judy type is preferable to the marionette type, because aggression, as in hitting, and affection, as in kissing, can be presented more directly to even the nursery child. Various performances bring out reactions of oral, anal and genital aggression, fixation and guilt among the children. Therefore puppetry is an excellent medium for better understanding the problem child: he sees himself and others; he has an opportunity to react to all kinds of situations because the make-believe nature of the shows reduces feelings of guilt and fear; he is socialized because he experiences his reactions in the presence of other children. Going a step further than the progressive education which uses puppetry for self-expression, the author describes through several short case histories his use of puppetry to help a child to understand and solve its emotional problems.