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In a chapter of some fifty pages, reprinted from the Practitioners' Library of Medicine and Surgery, Volume XIII, pp. 758-808, the writers have set out to call to the attention of pediatricians some of their responsibilities regarding the mental hygiene problems of early life. Neurosis they are told is largely the full blown outcome of seemingly slight deviations from normal functioning which may occur in the beginning of life.
In this brief work the authors touch on such problems as early feeding methods, weaning, thumb sucking, nail biting, toilet training, psychogenic vomiting, speech disorders, constipation, enuresis, anxiety, temper tantrums, discipline and spoiling, sibling jealousy, masturbation, sex education, the Oedipus complex, castration fear, phobias, tics, hysteria, compulsions, asocial behavior, school problems and the handling of medical and surgical problems. With such an array of subjects they can do little more than point out that these problems exist and perhaps stimulate interest in becoming better acquainted with them.
Particular emphasis is given to the fact that the majority of behavior difficulties arise in the child as reactions to emotionally disturbed parents. The general attitude to be encouraged is one of leniency in matters of training. Basic factors of early instinctual organization and control are not made clear, however.
Perhaps the most important points brought out are that seeming naughtiness is usually a manifestation of anxiety, and that masturbation, when it becomes excessive, is frequently due to lack of love or some serious privation.