PARENT AND CHILD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4410, 27 October 1934, Page 4

PARENT AND CHILD.

Most marital problems would be settled if the parties concerned were subjected to “attitude therapy,” said Dr. D. R. MaeCalman. addressing a joint session of the psychology and educational science sections of the British Association. The close involvement of the child with its parents, aiul especially with its mother, had, since the early days of child guidance, made the treatment of the parents concomitantly with the treatment of the child almost inevitable, he said. The treatment of the parent then became- the most promising way of dealing with the problem child. Indicating facts which, he said, constantly recurred, Dr. MaeCalman said, “In most faii’y tales so far written, I have noted that parents are inevitably good and kind, while children are often wicked, but in real life the position is very often reversed, though the individuals concerned are blissfully unaware of it. Over-protection is more often the “cause of delinquency in a child than rejection; in fact, it seems disastrous for one relative to love another too much. It is, indeed, true that the sins of the forefathers are visited upon the cfyjldren even to the third and fourth generation, for the patent-child attitude of an individual is determined by, though not necessarily the same as, the attitude of his own parents toward himself. The Victorians have made adult adjustment—the establishment of oneself as an independent and useful citizen —extraordinarily difficult, and the majority of the population enjoy intellectual freedom only; intellectual adults, they are still emotionally at their mother's’ knees. Marriage, which ought to be the final adjustment, is in many cases undertaken for an infantile reason. It will be necessary to educate the public as quickly as possible to the fact that there is always a reason for a child’s temper, tantrums, or stealing, and, that something can be done about it to the same extent that a broken limb or a case of pneumonia can be treated; that is, the personality can be given the best opportunity of making its own adjustment.”