You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This book describes the author's extensive experiences in group activities with children presenting a variety of conduct and neurotic disorders. As an exposition of a relatively new approach to the practical problem of working with children, this is a valuable contribution, whether or not one is in agreement with the author's theories and assumptions. This work has been carried on at the Jewish Board of Guardians in New York City since 1934 and the author describes carefully the details of formation of groups, training of workers and psychiatric supervision.
In so far as the purpose of the project was the amelioriation of symptoms in behaviour disorders, one may consider it as a form of treatment, but the author himself points out that the children were at no time made aware of the fact that they were under treatment, nor was any attempt made directly to give them any insight. Rather it appears that we are dealing with a carefully supervised experience in group living carried out by case workers under psychiatric supervision.
Mr. Slavson defines the particular therapy employed in this study as 'activity group therapy', which he states is limited as follows: 'Group therapy, as we employ the term, is treatment in which no discussion is initiated by the therapist; interpretation is given only in very rare instances and under specific conditions. Emotional reorientation comes from the very fact that the child experiences actual situations, lives and works with other children, comes into direct and meaningful interaction with others, and as a result modifies his feeling tones and habitual responses.'
He outlines what he considers the four cardinal needs of the children under treatment. These are: (1) security in unconditional love; (2) the need for status and success by meeting the creative and assertive needs of the children; (3) occupational interests; (4) acceptance by the group.
A weakness of this book is the author's tendency to a facile superficial type of psych