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The author describes a series of experiments designed to investigate causal relationships between bowel training, bowel functioning, and the presence of certain attitudes and character traits. He attempts to study the 'potting couple' (the child and the mother or surrogate) and the role each plays in the vicissitudes of bowel training. He compares the potting situation to nursing, except that in the former the roles are reversed with the child being the chief giver. Nevertheless, 'each sacrifices something for the other and when the final body product reaches its proper receptacle there should normally be a feeling of gain rather than loss… [The child] can bear to part with its product because under normal circumstances it has not invested [it] with exaggerated, positive, or negative feelings that may make it either want to keep [it] or get rid of [it] in a hurry.'
Anthony divides encopresis into three main types: the 'continuous child' is one in whom the lack of sphincter control is 'an integral part of the general messiness' of the environment, and whose mother's attitude is, 'I couldn't care less'. In these children there is little inhibition, shame, guilt, or disgust. These children do not require psychotherapy but need real habit training under good conditions. The 'discontinuous child' is the compulsive child of a compulsive family. It is overcontrolled and inhibited in its emotional life and scrupulous with regard to its habits. The mothers of these children tend to be rigid and authoritarian, to establish sado-masochistic relationships with the children, and to dichotomize the world in terms of good and bad, clean and dirty. The discontinuous child is deeply disturbed and requires prolonged therapy as well as some measure of protection from its mother. The 'retentive child' really belongs to subgroupings of the above mentioned categories. This type of child usually undergoes severe bowel training to which it reacts with stubborn constipation. Th