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The following pages describe some aspects of the work of the Diagnostic Research Group at the Hampstead Clinic.1 In general our aims were to conduct an inquiry into the difficulties of diagnosing infantile disturbances, and to re-evaluate initial diagnostic impressions and predictions which were recorded after the initial interviews and in the Diagnostic Conference. This initial material was compared with that gained from the same children after psychoanalytic treatment. It was hoped that as a result of this research, errors in assessment would be reduced and a more satisfactory and systematic technique for evaluating the initial findings would be evolved.
Several different approaches to the problem have been followed, but this paper is concerned with only one of these: the Developmental Profile as outlined by Anna Freud (1962). The Profile is not yet a finished product, and has undergone numerous modifications and adaptations in the course of our work.2