The Psychoanalytic Approach to the Problems of Children Under Twelve Years of age*

Most of us professing to be psychiatrists must confess that we have spent far more time and energy in attempting to learn the nature of the mechanisms involved in abnormal behavior than on the possible procedure toward prevention; but after all our attitude has been justified since one must learn more or less of the exact nature of a disorder before steps may be taken to prevent it. There are a few things in this connection which seem to be important and therefore should not be lost sight of in the great opportunities in mental hygiene which are taking form and demanding practical application in the so—called “Child Habit Clinics” of several cities of this country.

The approach to children should have two main functions. The first and most immediate to be considered being the study and attempted correction of such practical concrete problems as arise in the community, the other and certainly not the least important, the research applications where opportunity for the collection of data concerning many obscure problems will prove in time to be perhaps the clinic's most useful function. Now let us outline some definite points of interest in the development of the individual problems.

The approach to the fundamentals of children's problems is not an easy one since it usually invites a complex situation calling for a modification of the behavior of one or more adults and may be also entangled among the inadequacies of the present school system. Certainly as a preliminary it requires at least a complete social investigation, a thorough medical examination, a psychological and educational survey and an intensive psychiatric analysis. Dealing with a single case may involve medical treatment, psychotherapy, family relief and reconstruction, recreation, change in school, education of parents for that profession, employment, and legal measures.

It is obvious that in any given problem the hereditary possibilities