Case XVI. ‘Peter’ aet 13 Years

The following case is intended to illustrate the fact that often the main part of the work is done by the parents. My personal interview with the boy was a relatively insignificant part of the total procedure. It did, however, enable me to get the kind of history of the case that I need, which is the history taken through the patient. On the basis of this I was able to give support to the parents for the immense upheaval which was needed in order to manage the case. The parents saw their son through successfully, so that after a regressive episode he began to make new growth based on a firmer foundation.

Drawing sequences are not necessary in this case.

Peter was sent to me by his private boarding school. He came with a letter from the school doctor:

Peter came to this school in January of this year, entering School House where his housemaster is the headmaster. Official opinion there has been that although intellectually dull he is ‘such a very nice boy’. He has twice been a patient for a few days in the Sanatorium and the other members of the staff concur in my view that he was most unlikeable during these two phases of illness, being aggressive and insolent in a strangely impersonal way. He certainly gave the impression at that time of considering himself superior in all respects, at least so far as all the members of the staff were concerned. He seemed to be accepted by his contemporaries. I was inclined to ascribe the aggressiveness to an excess of ‘inflation’ not uncommonly found in the new boy.

Yesterday, the headmaster told me that Peter was responsible for a long series of misdemeanours which had disturbed School House since early in March. The first known instance was when a senior boy returned from a period in the sick room to find his pillow and sheets badly slashed. The next night it was found that all new boys' beds had been similarly treated and that ink had, been wantonly splashed about on walls. Since then, there has been a series of thefts, of money, o