Individual psychology and the child / Leonhard Seif [and others].

Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Individual psychology and the child / Leonhard Seif [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    environmental influence is not compelling, but incentive and alluring! I quite realise that objections may here be raised; that one is talking as though there was not what we call heredity; traits of character that are innate, in- born; as if there were not certain individual limits of gifts and talents. We must be particularly careful in approaching this subject under this aspect. The encouraging experience of I.P. is: Not what one 1s gifted with is relevant, but what one makes of tt. Of course, it would be a nice soothing cushion for the child as well as the educator, if the education of the child did not make progress, to be able to say: “Well, it is not my fault, it is the fault of heredity. I cannot help it!” Conceit and education are irreconcilable. I think we all ought to be courageous enough never to think that everything we do is right and perfect. We all should realize that we are liable to mistakes, that to err is human and this holds good for everybody. It is up to mother, father, teacher to understand their own and the child’s mistakes, to arouse his confidence and courage, to interest and help him, to make him friendly, and co-operative. Of course, such an educator needs something with- out which—it seems to me—education is absolutely impossible. That factor is confidence. How can there be education without confidence and belief in the child one has to deal with? If one fears, as is often the case, that he will be like his father, his grandmother, or “that stupid uncle” (or anything like that!) how can one help the child? E.g. an illegitimate child came to my clinic with his mother. The mother was very unhappy about the broken relationship with the father of the child. One parent hated the other and the child, too, and treated the child with the hatred felt for the other parent. I often meet with those conditions. “‘You are like your father; you will do the