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Christopher Reeves, Karnac Books, 2012, 160 pp. (paperback)
This slim and readable volume dedicated to exploring Donald Winnicott's concept of the ‘antisocial tendency’ is to be welcomed for its contemporary relevance and appeal to all those working with psychologically disturbed youngsters. The book is the publication of a series of six child and adolescent lectures on the theme of the antisocial tendency, organized by the Squiggle Foundation in 2009/2010 and given by child and adolescent psychotherapists and other leading professionals who have extensive experience of working in the fields of child mental health, residential child care and child care policy. Because each speaker was given little specific brief in relation to the theme of the antisocial tendency and was unaware of the content of the other lectures in the series, the publication of their talks has resulted in some overlap and repetition regarding content and context. However, this is outweighed by the immediacy and evocativeness of the, often very personal, accounts of each speaker's interpretation and experience of Winnicott's thinking on antisocial youth, including some vivid case examples (see the chapters by Ann Horne and Jenny Sprince), accounts that are accessible to a non-specialist audience and readership but are deeply moving.
These papers confirm Winnicott's continued significance in the twenty-first century. In the UK, the unforeseen 2011 summer riots lend added poignancy to the publication of these lectures. The public disorder which so suddenly and dramatically erupted is explored in a postscript by Adrian Ward to the original lectures. He suggests that the rioting represents a form of communication which reflects the current discontent and despair of a very deprived and disadvantaged section of our country's youth, comprising young people who know no other way of communicating their distress except through action. The behaviour expresses resentment, but also hope and the wish to be stopp