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The work of a child psychotherapist in a day school for disturbed children is deserving of some detailed examination. Working in such a milieu differs in many respects from a child guidance clinic or hospital. It presents problems which have not been previously discussed. This paper is an attempt to consider some of these problems and stems from my experience as a child psychotherapist at a day school for maladjusted children serving disturbed children between five and fifteen years of age. Once a child is placed in such a school he usually has behind him a discouraging history of social maladaptation and developmental failure. One hopes, therefore, that a placement of this kind will not only safeguard against further failures but will also rebuild in the child a trust and belief in a “good-enough” world where he can live without overwhelming fear of others and of himself, and where he may be helped to benefit from and contribute towards the community in which he finds himself.
The child psychotherapist is primarily concerned with trying to find out how this world looks to him, i.e. in which way his view of it is distorted by his own problems, and to discover how these problems in turn interfere with good relationships and emotional growth. “Treatment” gives the child a chance to reflect on his feelings and phantasies together with a concerned grown-up, who is trying very hard to understand what is going on in the child's mind and to communicate such insight. This is not an intellectual exercise but comes about within the context of a living growing relationship in which the earliest feelings and conflicts are revived, repeated and given a second chance to find resolution.
Two misconceptions held by teaching staff require clarification. In the first place there is often a false assumption that treatment consists of the child doing as he pleases in a totally permissive setting, with some suspicion that it is a “treat”, in contrast to the serious task of learning in the