The Disturbed Child. By Pearl H. Berkowitz and Esther P. Rothman. New York:  New York University Press, 1960,  204 pps. $4.00.

Written for the general classroom teacher and the teacher in special schools for emotionally disturbed children, this is a useful and interesting book not only for its intended audience but also for those with a more professional interest in mental hygiene work with children. The authors write from a background of personal experience in the children's wards of psychiatric hospitals and in the special schools of New York City. Both hold doctorates in psychology and one is a principal of one of the special schools in New York known as the “600” type.

Drs. Berkowitz and Rothman emphasize the significant contribution to the mental health of school children that can be made through the observational skill of the teacher and her sensitivity to behavior symptomatic of underlying conflict. Their text is clearly an attempt to increase this observational skill and sensitivity. Separate chapters describe the schizophrenic child, the child with organic malfunctioning, the neurotic child with internalized conflicts, the child who expresses his conflicts in acting-out behavior, sexual deviations in children, and the psychopathic personality. Later chapters deal with the teacher's psychological relationship to the disturbed child and with the curriculum for emotionally disturbed children.