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Björn Wrangsjö who at the time of writing had trained as a child and adolescent psychiatrist and was in training at the Swedish Psychoanalytic Institute, wrote this book as a companion volume to an official investigation into the mental health services for children and young people in Sweden (Socialstyrelsen redovisar 1980:2). The working party for this investigation wanted to publish a brief overview of the theories and frames of reference applicable in the field, and Wrangsjö took upon himself the task of writing it. As it is, the book has very much received his personal imprint.
In an introduction, he presents his own development as regards theory. The book is not so much a result of studies in the present as the distilled result of a hunger for understanding from childhood onwards. Through studies in psychology and medicine and through work in an adolescent psychiatric hospital department and later in a child and adolescent outpatient unit, he has encountered the politicizing social psychiatry of the late sixties, the therapeutic community movement, body oriented therapies, psychoanalysis, group and family therapies, all theories seen in the light of psychiatric practice - the personal meeting with the child and the family. He makes the proper distinction between explaining and understanding.
How well has he succeeded in presenting these “distilled insights”, and how has he gone about it?
The book is divided into four parts. (1) Some basic practical and theoretical assumptionss, (2) theories concerning individuals, (3) theories concerning individuals in interaction, and (4) theories concerning structural relationships, i.e., systems theory. The four parts are subdivided into a total of 15 chapters.
One main assumption of the book is that no single theory is sufficient to explain or encompass the interplay between biological, psychological and social factors in human life. There are brief descriptions of several theories within each of these areas. Part 2 takes