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This is a popular presentation of basic childhood conflicts through the medium of case notes. The avowed object of the book is to give parents sufficient insight into the nature of unconscious mental processes for them, by this knowledge and understanding of themselves, to be able to help their children to express, understand, and come to terms with the many anti-social thoughts and feelings which are normally present in the child.
The book is in narrative form, based on the case history of a boy of seven and a half who was brought for treatment by his mother on account of his failure to make the grade at school. He had suffered from asthma since the age of three, commencing during his mother's second pregnancy. As an allergic base for the asthma was found, the psychological implications were not considered important. He attended for treatment twice weekly for two and a half years and then intermittently for another three years.
From the popular point of view the interest of the book is much enhanced by several factors—the therapist's running commentary on the counter-transferences, and the fact that both father and mother came to her for treatment. The mother was taken on for treatment shortly after the boy. This consisted of two sessions a week and enrolment in a psychotherapy group which met once a week under the guidance of the author and the family doctor. About a year later, at the mother's request, the father was interviewed and later was enrolled in the same psychotherapy group. He also had intermittent interviews.
With this intimate knowledge of the two parents and their background, the author is able to describe vividly the emotional interplay between the parents and its effect upon the child and also how the inhibitions on both sides of the family (stretching back to the grandparents) had been imposed upon the child.
While there is nothing new in any of the material presented, the author's graphic descriptions of the boy's behaviour during some of the