The Problem Child at Home. A Study in Parent-Child Relationships. By Mary Buell Sayles. The Commonwealth Fund, Division of Publication, New York. 1928. Price $1.50.

The term “problem child” has come to be rather glibly used to cover a multitude of family maladjustments. As the veriest novice in social work knows, the usual problem child represents the most concrete evidence of a disharmonious family. Thus the inquiry, originally begun with the child, usually at some welfare clinic, rapidly broadens until its ramifications include the whole of the child's social milieu.

In her present book Miss Sayles has limited herself, so far as possible, to those problems of behavior which arise in the child as a direct result of family situations, incorrect handling of the child, fixations, jealousies, parental complexes, and the like. The book, in fact, might be taken as a clinical addendum to J. C. Flügel's, “Psychoanalytic Study of the Family.”

The first part of the book is devoted to problems which arise as a result of the interplay of emotional forces in the family and the second part to the harm which results from mistaken ideas and erroneous methods of instruction and discipline. The third part is clinical and given over to a number of very interesting case-histories.

The book can be recommended unqualifiedly to the visiting teacher,