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Some years ago, when examining the environmental factors that cause antisocial behaviour I tentatively put forward the view that the gross disturbances in the early home background of delinquent children are not met with in the histories of our adult neurotic patients (2). At that time I had at my disposal the hihgly selected case material of my own patients and of published case histories.
Examination of cases observed over the last 2 years at a child guidance clinic1 showed as a whole striking differences in the home background of neurotic as compared with that of antisocial children. The diagnosis of antisocial behaviour is not made only on the basis of manifest delinquency, but whenever there are signs of an antisocial character formation. In such cases there is a history of unmanageableness at home, and—if the child is old enough—at school, of running away, destructiveness, lying, and very often pilfering in the home.
Out of 34 cases of antisocial children, the child had in 12 instances been separated from the mother before the age of 5, and grown up either in institutions or in unsuitable foster-homes, with a frequent change of the adults in charge of them. In another 12 cases there were other gross disturbances of the early family setting: some of the children lived with the mother alone, either because of their illegitimacy or because the father deserted them before they were 5 years old. In some cases they were separated from their mothers after that age, and in 2 cases the mothers were borderline psychotics. Only in 10 cases were the children living at home with both their parents, and in 2 cases only were these homes stable. In both these 2 cases, delinquent behaviour appeared for the first time at puberty and could be regarded as a passing phase.
Among the neurotic children were included those who were suffering