Atypical children : the etiological factors in their production / by S.P. Goodhart.

  • Goodhart, Simon P. (Simon Philip), 1873-
Date:
1913
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Atypical children : the etiological factors in their production / by S.P. Goodhart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of the symptoms of dementia praecox are really evolved perversion of the activity of normal juve- nile life. Indeed, if we follow out the bizarre and kaleidoscopic variations of the psychic life of neu- rotic, and sometimes even of normal children, we can see the parallelism in the psychological phe- nomena between that within the borderland of the normal mind and those juvenile forms of alienation. In any case under observation, a careful history, ancestral and personal, is necessary from the first; a painstaking and, if essential, repeated observa- tions of the child; psychoanalytical methods some- times to bring out the nucleus of the psychological effect. Personally, I find the Binet tests of general value only; they are doubtless useful in schools and institutions to determine the psychological error. However, I find other methods necessary. The Bi- net tests do not enable me to reach the child’s true emotional sphere, nor can I reach conclusions as to the psychic equivalent between judgment, memory, and emotion. While it is true that the moral devel- opment of a child is largely a matter of education, some cases seem lacking in the general ground- work, the inherent basic principles necessary for the normal development of the moral side of man. These children are really moral imbeciles. With them, wrong doing, sometimes committed with what seems diabolical viciousness, is analogous in its ini- tiative to the impulses of the kleptomaniac and of the pyromaniac. In this class, though there be in- tellectual efficiency, the influence of environment and teaching is small. For example, I have a case; a boy of eight years, precocious for his ability in most appropriate ex- temporaneous speaking. He has an engaging man- ner, an attractive personality, and is physically well developed. He is, however, willful, being difficult to manage because of this condition and also be- cause of his desire to play only in the imaginative sphere. He does not interest himself with material things and does not enjoy the games and the usual