Quote of the Day

In looking into the work of one of the contemporary leading “gurus,” Urie Bronfenbrenner, we find his conceptual framework of ecological human development (1979) akin to Redl’ s concern with the intervening personal and environmental forces. It is not clear whether Bronfenbrenner actually was familiar with Redl’ s earlier efforts, but he decisively advanced these earlier concepts.

There seems to be a newly awakened attention to interactive humanistic and ecological factors (earlier identified as “milieu”). They are currently reflected in the human services — especially in group care (Krueger, 1990a). This emphasis is reappearing after decades of experimentation with psychodynamic, behavioral, and other grand-scale formulations for engineering social change.

It is of interest to note that this latest paradigm shift is consistent with events at the end of this century, when political liberalism, an acknowledgment of essential connections across natural and ethnic boundaries as we search for a pluralistic society, is apparently assuming center stage.

Another illustration of the legacy of Redl has to do with his repeated call to perceive “discipline” as an issue of child care rather than child control. This was an essential point for him, which he advocated throughout his professional life (1966, pp. 355-377). Especially noteworthy are his strong assaults on physical punishment, which surely had a role in the decline of its use in current child and youth care. Lest we forget this powerful position, his statement and that of Dave Wineman deserves to be cited here:

We are against the application of physical punishment in any form whatsoever under any circumstances. Even for the normal child we reject the idea that physical pain will “teach” the youngster, that the entrance to the character of a child leads through the epidermis of his hindquarters, or that physical pain will solve things by giving a child the chance to pay for his sins and thus end his guilt feelings. The implication of physical punishment is always, no matter how mild a form is being used, that physical violence will “change” a child, or will motivate him toward a more social approach to life, people, and values. Sometimes it is admittedly meant to be a “behavior stopper” only, but even then we can show the enormous price we pay for such a technique in terms of the poisonous by-products, even should the surface goal be achieved. (1952, p. 211).

HENRY MAIER
Maier, H., W. (1991) What’s old – is new: Fritz Redl’s teaching reaches into the present. In Morse, W.C.(Ed.) Crisis Intervention in Residential Treatment: The Clinical Innovations of Fritz Redl. New York: The Haworth Press, pp. 15 – 30