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The children of time and space, action and impulse are the psychotic and borderline child patients treated by Rudolf Ekstein and his colleagues at the Southard School in Illinois and at the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center in Los Angeles. This book is the result of two decades of clinical research on psychoanalytic treatment procedures with these children. Typical of Ekstein is a lively collaboration with colleagues, and various sections of his present book are joint endeavors. Also, several sections have appeared earlier in various publications. Thus, Children of Time and Space, of Action and Impulse is a kind of cumulative report from a notable quarter of the professional community.
Among Ekstein's hopes for this publication is that the pioneering efforts in the psychoanalytic treatment of psychotic children can “be tested and can move from the realm of the miracle cure, by especially intuitive psychotherapists, to one of a transmittable treatment technique, which is based on a clear rationale and verifiable predictions.”
Anyone who treats severely disturbed children is familiar with the unfortunate mythology that collects around clinical techniques. Psychotherapists tend to isolate themselves to a greater extent than workers in any other clinical specialty. Therefore, ordinary theoretical and clinical findings are rarely communicated. “Theory is nonsense with these children,” goes one view, “only courage and intuition can help them.” Another well-known leader has it: “I guess it really doesn't matter what interpretation I offer my therapists. Anything will do as long as it relieves the therapist's anxieties.” Even Bruno Bettelheim's recent publication, The Empty Fortress, although impressive in its presentation of the arduousness of treatment, leaves the reader with no advanced foot