You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In this book, Dr. Allen presents an overall picture of the work of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic by telling the story of several case procedures against a background of his own theory and 'philosophy' of psychotherapy. This volume deals with the procedures used with the children, leaving the simultaneous therapy of the mothers—upon which complete success presumably depends—to a volume still to be written.
Despite the differences between psychoanalytic theory and Dr. Allen's own philosophy of therapy, there is a general attitude and approach which is common to both. For instance, his emphasis on the child's participation in the treatment, 'helping the child to help himself', the importance of the relationship between therapist and child, the concept of therapy as a 'growth-inducing experience'—these he has in common with the psychoanalyst, in contrast to the type of guidance which makes complete objective preliminary studies on the basis of which 'authoritative' therapy is then administered to the child, parent, school, etc. Essential differences exist, however, in the elaboration of these general principles.
The main thesis in Dr. Allen's theory of child psychotherapy is that the child must attain for itself 'differentiation' from the parents within the basic father-mother-child relationship, and that psychological 'differentiation' is part of biological and cultural 'differentiation' processes of growth. To the elucidation of this idea, the author devotes several chapters before discussing how it works out in therapy.
One can accept much that is wise and aptly put in Allen's discussion of the processes of growth and differentiation. His bias against psychoanalysis comes from a laudable desire to see only positive forces in the child's growth and from an incomplete and therefore mistaken interpretation of psychoanalytic dynamics which to him lays emphasis on 'negative' forces.
For instance, he assumes that psychoanalysis regards instincts as 'bad'; that