Mothers and children apart

Press, 9 April 1977, Page 17

Mothers and children apart

Psychological Deprivation in Childhood. By J. Langmeier and Z. Matejcek. Edited by G. L. Mangan. University of Queensland Press. 496 pp. $24. (Reviewed by Richard Thompson) Psychological deprivation is a concept of great significance and little clarity. Such deprivation usually implies a loss such as the separation of the child from its mother or the denial of some basic need as may occur when the child is confined to an impoverished environment. The authors are both members of the Postgraduate Medical Institute in Prague. They became involved with this problem in an attempt to see how institutional care in Czechoslovakia might be improved. After the Second World War rapid social, economic and political changes resulted in the vastly greater employment of women. The number of nurseries and kindergartens increased, and a highly integrated network of child-care facilities emerged. The provision of these facilities did not arise solely out of the desire to assist working mothers. There were those who felt that from a medicaldevelopmental point of view, the

organised professional care provided was superior to that of the average family and that such institutions provided a more effective means of inculcating in the new citizen a sense of collective responsibility. Things did not work out as planned. The children had all that was considered good for them, but in the nurseries the incidence of illness and emotional problems increased. The children apparently needed mothers more than they needed professionals. The authors have surveyed the literature on psychological deprivation with remarkable thoroughness. The 65 page bibliography has the advantage of including little-known European references in addition to those published in English. There is no single picture presented by the deprived child, the authors conclude; there is no single factor which inhibits the child’s development in a particular way. Rather there are, it is suggested, different types of deprived personality and a four level theory' is offered as a basis for diagnosis and for therapeutic and preventive action.

This study of psychological deprivation is both comprehensive and readable.