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This bulletin is concerned solely with child psychosis, and Maffei, who is consultant to the Child Psychiatric Service, is the only analytical psychologist among the contributors. His name appears as co-author with four colleagues—G. Baracchini and S. Nissim (psychiatrists), G. Gabbriellini and M. Camoni (psychologists and psychotherapists)—in three papers.
The first of these is a team report (25 pp.) on problems experienced by families with psychotic children living at home in their relationship with the environment, on the difference in these relationships within the families, and on the concomitant therapeutic work. The main finding is that all such families are abnormally dependent on the opinions of others, and can be divided into two groups: those who seize upon the first diagnosis of the child's condition and who cling to it even when it can be shown subsequently to have been mistaken; and those who are never satisfied with the diagnosis and go from doctor to doctor begging to be told ‘the truth’. Individual instances are given of these two groups and of the effect upon the child of the families’ attitudes.
The team consider the prime therapeutic aim is to keep going as lively as possible an interaction within the nuclear family as well as with them. In this context the initial interview with the psychiatrist is crucial: he must resist the pressure on him to make an unequivocal diagnosis. This is not easy, since he has to deal not only with his own wish to outshine or impress his colleagues, but also with the enormous anxiety of the parents—a child can be imprisoned for life, however, in a diagnostic ‘label’. Therefore the team advocate an ‘enigma-diagnosis’ which creates an open and ongoing situation within the family and between it and themselves. They recommend telling the parents that the child's disturbance is difficult to explain but that emotional and interpersonal factors certainly play a big part, trying in this way to keep the parents involved with th