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This volume represents the Russell Sage Foundation studies of the relationships of social science and child psychiatry. The Foundation for years has been interested in the integration of “pertinent data and principles selected from the fields of sociology, cultural anthropology, and social and learning psychology into psychoanalytically oriented child guidance.”
Here is the work of an initial two-year experiment along these lines by the Jewish Board of Guardians under the direction of the editor. It explores the “question of whether existing funds of social science knowledge can be adapted to psychotherapy practiced in a child guidance setting.” The agency concerned utilizes professional teams, most of the therapy being carried on by social workers, the psychiatrist providing medical control and responsibility for diagnostic supervision and treatment planning. The psychologist—essentially a psychometrician—is concerned with diagnosis and treatment planning.
The first question was the adapting of social science to child guidance practice, and here the base problems of communication and the role of a social science consultant were worked out. It was felt the consultant must become intimately acquainted with problems of practice and must also accept the notion that he is only a consultant not a decision maker. Consultancies were set up along these lines and situational approach methods were employed. This approach emphasizes “(1) that individuals with the same basic personality structure may react differently in different situations; (2) that different situational experiences would produce differences in basic personality structure.” Marked importance was placed upon the environmental approach and concepts particularly selected were of the