S. E. P. E. G.
MENTAL HEALTH 43
Since my return from Switzerland people ask me: ” Why did you go to Basle ? ” When I reply, ” I went to the Third S.E.P.E.G. Conference,” they naturally ask ” what is this S.E.P.E.G. ? “
And on reflection, I have to ask myself: ” Is this organization the shape of things to come, or is it the survival of a past epoch ? ” What place is there in a world of mammoth organizations such as U.N.O., U.N.E.S.C.O., World Health Organization, and all the other similar set-ups, for a small voluntary association with international interests ? Perhaps a brief account of the activities of S.E.P.E.G. (Semaines internationales d’etudes pour l’enfance victime de la Guerre) will answer the question.
The executive committee of S.E.P.E.G. is a small committee of Swiss citizens under the presidency of Dr O. L. Forel, all holding responsible positions in other voluntary agencies interested in social problems of children and young persons. Its activities have been financed chiefly by Don Suisse, and its successor, l’Aide suisse a l’Europe, by private subscriptions, and by donations from big industrial firms.
S.E.P.E.G. is affiliated with l’union internationale de Protection de l’enfance (U.I.P.E.) and is a member ?f the World Federation for Mental Health. There is also a close collaboration with U.N.I.C.E.F. (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund). The first conference was called in September, 1945, at Zurich, and representatives ?f 18 countries worked out a series of resolutions embodying the principles that should guide the administrative action taken on behalf of children who were victims of the war. These resolutions were unanimously adopted; in itself a triumph of negotiation as they were based on child guidance Principles, which were new to many of the representatives. Furthermore, these principles were adopted by most of the governments and authorities who sent these representatives to Zurich and formed the basis for subsequent administrative action. This remarkable result is a testimony to the conviction with which the representatives returned to their own countries, and is perhaps an indication of the solidarity of group feeling or team spirit achieved in twelve days of intense discussion. The second conference took place at Zurich in 1947 to study the work accomplished in various Parts of Europe in the two years since the last conference, and also the results of the application of the resolutions of the 1945 Congress. *
S.E.P.E.G. has also organized a short three peeks’ course in child guidance methods, and this has been held at Lausanne under the direction of ^r. Lucien Bovet. Students from twelve countries attended the courses in 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949, and they included doctors, psychologists, social workers, probation officers, teachers, and heads of approved schools.
Your reporter attended the 1947 ” cours de perfectionnement ” and was very impressed not only with the high standard of technical information, but the very great value of the multi-professional contacts, and the remarkable team spirit developed in a group of men and women trained under different disciplines and speaking at least four different languages. It was an excellent example of group-therapy in practice. Besides the formal lectures, there was ample opportunity for free discussion. All meals were eaten in common in the University canteen, and on free days (Sundays) the whole group went on a common expedition to the mountains or to a picnic in the country. Moreover, the director entered enthusiastically into all the activities of the group, and worked and played with the group.
Further, S.E.P.E.G. has organized visits to regions of special need. On the invitation of representatives of the country concerned, teams of specialists have visited Grenoble in France; Rome, Milan, Rimini, Florence and Naples, in Italy; Odenwaldschule near Heppenheim and Hamburg, in Germany; Vienna in Austria, and Otwoch in Poland. As a result, Child Guidance Centres were set up in Milan, a hostel for maladjusted children in Grenoble, the organization of a child guidance centre was begun in Rome, and courses of lectures and study groups were organized by those who had attended the S.E.P.E.G.s at Rimini and Odenwaldschule. Another activity of S.E.P.E.G. has been the collection of basic libraries of 100 volumes dealing with educational and child guidance subjects. These basic libraries have been sent to Milan, Rome, Naples, Rimini, Florence, Alexandria, Grenoble, Lyons, Odenwaldschule, Warsaw, Vienna and Athens.
A beginning has been made in publication, and an experimental number of the Revue Suisse de Psychologie was devoted to a series of articles from specialists of different disciplines dealing with the type of problems undertaken by the S.E.P.E.G. organization.
This, then, was the background of work and tradition in front of which we met at the third S.E.P.E.G. Conference at Basle this September. The set subject for discussion this year was the ” Position of European Youth “, and contributions to the debates were provided from the point of view of the teacher, the psychologist, the psychiatrist and the clergy. The speakers reported on a variety of contrasting conditions, ranging from unemployment in Italy to full employment in Great Britain?from stark undernourishment in Greece to prosperous conditions in Belgium.
But whether the material conditions were go’od or bad, it was manifest that there was a reluctance, an inertia on the part of youth to face the stark realities of a post-war world. Indeed, the spokesman for youth, president of the World Association of Youth, a remarkable bearded figure, harangued us at some length, reproaching us because we were old and out of sympathy with the aims of youth. Preoccupied with the tasks facing youth it was not surprising that emphasis was laid, particularly by the Germans, on the attitude to work. When a Belgian headmaster laid down the aphorism that man did not live to work, he worked to live, there was an interruption and a protest from the President himself ! But there seemed to be a danger that in recommending measures that would facilitate the adaptation of youth to society, the individual himself would be lost sight of. The extreme example came from the representative of Israel who described the communities of youth where the young refugees are reconditioned to work on the land, to forgo their previous culture and to devote themselves to the common task of cultivating their native land.
While many speakers, therefore, recommended the cultivation by every possible means of the team spirit, the group approach?particularly in the field of education?there were others who pointed out the limitations of these techniques?of the children who were unable to join a group because of extreme maladjustment, or of the children who had become so accustomed to group life in a children’s village that they were ” lost ” once they were separated from this community, this easy republic of children.
There was an awareness of the risk of oversocializing the child at the expense of his individuality. Indeed, some speakers claimed that no child should spend longer than two years in a children’s community. After this they should be fostered or boarded out. To live too long in a children’s institution might be as harmful to “la vie individuelle ” as a homeless life lived in the streets. It seemed to be generally agreed that the natural family provided the best conditions for a ” formation interieure but there was much doubt in the minds of many delegates about the possibility of reconstructing the hundreds of thousands of broken families. There was even doubt in some minds that the surviving families were successful in providing the patterns necessary for a good super ego. And one speaker (a Russian emigre), pointed out that it was really a crisis of confidence. How could we expect youth to trust us, when we distrusted ourselves ? If youth was defeatist, it was because we were ourselves defeatist. In contrast to this scepticism, the robust eloquence of Padre Solinas was refreshing. It made no difference to him whether youth approached the truth from the Right or from the Left, and, of course, for him the truth was the truth of the Catholic Church. Perhaps the general trend of four days’ debate was best summed up by a Dutch delegate who had spent three years in the Dachau concentration camp: At present we were better at diagnosis than treatment.
The last two days of the Conference were spent in a discussion of the future of S.E.P.E.G., and a plan which had been discussed by a sub-committee was placed before the meeting. In brief, this resolution suggested the setting-up of an international training centre in child guidance methods in Switzerland. Such a training centre would not only give theoretical training but practical experience. It was felt that the S.E.P.E.G. organization had, after five years experience, special qualifications in advising on the practicability of such a plan, and that Switzerland, with its tradition of neutrality, and its multilingual culture, was a natural meeting place where students from many countries could usefully meet and together develop the necessary attitudes of understanding and human approach.
Frank Bodman, M.D., D.P.M.
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