Psychological Complications of Short Stature in Childhood

This study examines the effect of short stature on the emotional development of a subgroup of children who were treated in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. These children became capable of making accurate comparisons of body size in early latency as a result of advances in cognitive development. Recognizing their comparative smallness left them feeling vulnerable and humiliated. They responded with envy and rage toward normally endowed children and vindictively used their intellect to outwit and defeat others. They acted as if their suffering exempted them from ordinary social rules and expectations. Their preoccupation also resulted in arrests in cognitive and social development. Their distrust and intention to deceive and defeat posed particular problems for treatment. This outcome suggests that visual comparisons of size during early latency are implicated in pathological, and therefore in normal, development. Parallels are suggested between the subjective experience of children in this group and the experiences of children with other kinds of physical deviations and compromising life circumstances.