Institute for Child Guidance Studies
edited by Lawson G. Lowrey, M.D. The Commonwealth Fund. 1931. viii + 290 pp. $1.50.
In this volume an attempt has been made to give a picture of the work of the Institute for Child Guidance by presenting a symposium of various papers which have appeared from time to time in scientific and professional journals, each written by a past or present member of the staff at that Institute. There are, in all, sixteen papers; six of these are contributions in the social field; six in the field of the medical approach; and two each in the fields of psychology and of child training. Five of the papers are written by the editor, Dr Lawson G. Lowrey, Director of the Institute; two each are written by Curt Rosenow, Statistician, and Dr H. M. Tiebout, Psychiatrist. The remaining contributions have been made by Dr David M. Levy, Chief of Staff, Christine C. Eobb, Chief of Social Service, Charlotte Towle, Psychiatric Social Worker, Bertha C. Reynolds, Research Assistant in Social Service, Katharine Moore, Psychiatric Social Worker, Mary Coburn, Librarian, Dr. Hyman S. Lippman, formerly Pediatrician at the Institute, and Samuel J. Beck, formerly Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Psychology.
Much may be said in favor of the volume, for it presents a general survey of the work characteristic of the Institute, and perhaps of Mental Hygiene as a movement. The papers devoted to social work are informative, discursive, and stimulating. Miss Towle’s article, Certain Changes in the Philosophy of Social Worlc, deserves especial mention as a well-presented historical survey of the development in attitude observed within this field. In the medical section, which, in general, is a mediocre treatise of the psychiatric approach to child problems, the paper Fingersucking and Accessory Movements in Early Infancy is easily superior to the others. It represents a rather careful statistical study of this behavior, and suggests rather definitely that habits of finger- and thumbsucking are the result of insufficient lipmovements, or “incompleteness of the sucking phase in the feeding act… . Of 122 unselected infants and children, the 28 fingersuckers in contrast with the rest have less opportunity for sucking movements… . Insufficient food appeared as a sole factor in the development of fingersucking in relatively few cases.” In our opinion this study deserves attention. It first appeared in 1928, in the American Journal of Psychiatry. (Vol. 7, pp. 881-918.) Of the two psychological contributions, Beck’s The Rorschach Test and Personality Diagnosis represents an attempt to investigate the use of Rorschach’s ink blot test with a group of feebleminded. Eighty-seven feebleminded individuals were tested, but the results of only 69 cases were used in the analysis. The author feels that ‘’ The Eorschach test offers possibilities of an excellent instrument for diagnosis of personality in both the intellectual and affective functionings,” though he rightly adds that the “norms are at present inadequate and further experimental work is necessary to make them satisfactory. …” Certainly further experimentation should include the use of more satisfactory criteria in standardization than are described in this article. This paper, also, was first printed in the American Journal of Psychiatry, in 1930. (Vol. 10, pp. 19-52.) Of the two papers devoted to the approach in child training, neither deserves unusual consideration. They are general in treatment, and should have informative value for parents and laymen, criticisms which might be made of the volume as a whole.
With the exception of the studies by Beck and by Levy, mentioned above, Eosenow’s The Incidence of First-torn among Problem Children represents the only experimental study. His work was done with 397 children selected from those appearing at the Cleveland demonstration clinic and 255 children from the clinic in Philadelphia. Conclusions are indefinite, except that “first-born children from small families present problems to child guidance clinics more frequently than do other children from such families.” The fact that the first born child is older, and has therefore had more time to become a “problem-child,” is admitted.
This group of studies should very well portray the approach and work of the Institute for Child Guidance, and of the Mental Hygiene movement. It should be informative for parents, social workers, visiting teachers and others interested in the problems of childhood. The fact that only three of the sixteen studies are of distinctly experimental character should indicate the attitude, desirable or not, of this movement. T. W. Richards
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