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It is important for the psychoanalyst who works with children to participate in child guidance in order to make his psychoanalytic experience accessible to a larger number of children than his few patients in analytic treatment. Educators often seek consultation for guidance in instances which present more difficulty than their training, experience, insight and ability have equipped them to handle. Such advice often requires a series of interviews, the number corresponding to the complexity of the problem and the needs of the child. In the following pages is reported a detailed account of an educational problem presented to a teacher who worked in coöperation with a child analyst. It is hoped that this report will illustrate the method of such work.
In active child guidance work, advice and help can not be limited to the child. The environment of the child and the members of the child's family need to be included in the educational activity.
Ten-year-old Frida attracted the attention of the teacher at the beginning of the school term because when she was called upon to recite, she took so long to answer that the teacher could not wait for her reply. It was apparent that the child was searching perplexedly for each word. Her face was expressionless and at the slightest interruption she would stop talking altogether. She hesitated so long in answering even the simplest question that it seemed as though she did not understand. Asked, 'Why have you forgotten?', after a seemingly endless pause she would make some such evasive answer as, 'Because I had too much to do'. One had the impression that she was emotionally disturbed and wanted to say something entirely different. She was too quiet, serious, apathetic, and appeared not to want to have anything to do with the other children.