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The aim of this presentation is to describe the experiences of a group of social workers at the Jewish Board of Guardians while training to learn to understand and treat borderline psychotic children and their parents. This project was conducted under the leadership of Dr. Hyman Spotnitz as consulting and training psychiatrist at the Bronx office of the Madeline Borg Child Guidance Institute during the years 1944-1954.
When the idea emerged that delinquent children whose behavior in various correctional settings for Jewish children had improved, and who were ready for discharge, needed help in readjusting to family, friends, and the community, a city office was opened for that purpose. First called the Office of Field Activities, it was later named the Jewish Board of Guardians. With the development of new ideas in child psychiatry and especially in child guidance, and the emergence of new hypotheses about human behavior and its disorders, the agency turned its attention to prevention.
In 1926 the JBG sponsored demonstration projects in two schools, whose purpose was to detect behavioral problems in children before problems could emerge. That same year a special Child Guidance Department was organized to apply a psychiatric approach to the study of children. The emphasis on prevention was thus brought more directly to their study and treatment.