Category — General Archive Entries

Child guidance workers all over the world have come to recognize more and more clearly that the overt problem which is brought to the Clinic in the person of the child is not the real problem; the problem which as a rule we need to solve is the tension among all the different members of the family. Child guidance is thus concerned not with children but with the total family structure of the child who is brought for treatmen

Eric Miller.

This is based on a talk given at the Clinical Psychology and Organizational Consultancy conference on “What makes a healthy organization – models for intervention”. April 27, 1993.

I read this paper last summer (1967) to a child care course at the North-western Polytechnic. This was in itself a rewarding experience, and has been followed by a series of seminars during which I have been able to discuss the paper with members of my audience, in terms of their own experience.

I think that a definition can usefully be made between spontaneous play, therapeutic play groups, and play therapy: and that therapeutic play groups could make a valuable contribution to residential child care in homes, school and hostels.

Barbara Dockar-Drysdale.

These notes were written during a difficult time, when it seemed that the Mulberry Bush would have to be turned from an organism into an organisation. I was attempting to adjust to changes which I found intolerable. This paper was an attempt to come to terms with a deeply altered emotional climate. These were problems for everyone concerned with the Mulberry Bush during this phase of development, many of which have now been resolved.

Barbara Dockar-Drysdale

This paper was built up from a short communication read in 1956 to the British Association of Scientists. I remember my horror and amusement when I found comments on the ‘frozen children’ in a daily newspaper, which described them as ‘leading a Jekyll and Hyde existence’.

In fact, the realisation in this paper proved of very great importance, since the dawning understanding of one category of unintegrated children helped us to recognise others. It was at this point that I met the Winnicotts: I had a discussion with both of them about ‘frozen’ children, when they confirmed and clarified much that I was as yet only seeing ‘though a glass darkly’.

This paper was also published in the British Journal of Delinquency. I think my main object – in the first place, at all events – was to insist that people should realise what it was like to live and work with such children.

Barbara Dockar-Drysdale