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8 February
NO 1262
Children today
Fritz Redl's 1962 presidential address to the American Orthopsychiatric Association was titled "Crisis in the Children's Field." In a later update Redl (1966) wrote that the crisis was still with us, remaining as acute as when he presented his original paper. One wishes we could hear his analysis of the crisis today. He would be speaking out in anger in behalf of our youngsters. The problems Redl described are not only with us still: The fact is the problems are more intense now and they come in new guises. In speaking of the United States and provisions for children, he called us "An Underdeveloped Country, Type Il" He explained that a Type II country is one where children's services are sorely undeveloped and for which there is no excuse, this in contrast to traditional undeveloped countries where services of all types are at a primitive state. While we love our kids we neglect our children and virtually hate our youth. He continues his state of the situation address by observing that the available services are flooded with children who do not fit, since they need more than the referral service can provide – should the child be accepted in the first place. Unless there is significant redirection, the 90s will find us continuing as Type II underdeveloped country for children, confronted with an unresolved crisis in child upbringing. It is painful to know that each skirmish won will have to be continually rewon as priorities change with the flux in society.
When one considers the time and energy it takes to produce a healthy youngster in our current society, is it any wonder that remaking a shattered life is financially and psychologically an expensive undertaking? Redl told us that there is no cheap or easy way to provide mental health for children; yet we continue to follow fads and look for short cuts.
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Redl's writings and the chapters in this book speak to this current scene in many ways. If more of the children are going to be kept in the mainstream, certainly crisis intervention and Life Space Interviewing are sine qua non. The nature and building of an hygienic milieu assumes importance in all intervention settings for disturbed children, not just in residential placements. Knitzer (Knitzer et al., 1990) points out that many school programs are stuck on a point system behavioral modification plateau. The adults have not gone beyond what Redl described as just being able to live in the same environment with disturbed kids. All who work with children need to know more about what makes children "tic," to use Redl's phrase. Aggressive behavior is in long supply but short in our understanding. Delinquency has become endemic. Workers recognize that many disturbed and disturbing children present one self in an individual one to one exchange with an adult and quite another self when performing in a group setting. In our closing section the reader will be directed to certain of Redl's papers on these topics.
The fact is, many young professionals are struggling with difficult children without the advantage of Redl's insights. Those who were long ago introduced to his wisdom will find rereading rewarding for there are always ideas that provide cues for tomorrow's engagements. So let us again become aware of how much we can benefit from his teaching. Fortunately many of the best papers of this remarkable man can be found in his (1966) collection When We Deal With Children. The problem is to stimulate directors, professors and students to search out his work and sense the excitement of a writer who was there before we were and writes it like it really is. We can "see" in our experience what he explains in his writings.
No one since has had Redl's clarity of vision combined with the descriptive power to illuminate the meaning of events we live with everyday. His genius was to speak on many levels and present a challenge to the child care worker and theoretician in the same description. The purpose of this publication is to encourage others to find the stimulation Redl's original followers found. Part of Redl's power was in how he delivered the message and unfortunately there is no way this can be reproduced in a printed page even with his colorful turn of phrase. The personality which made such an impact was composed of many facets that touched every writer in this volume as well as thousands who heard him lecture. He was an essential democrat, treating the neophyte and the distinguished with the same warm regard. His sense of humor was always there, and often at his own expense. And Fritz did love a party. He was always in a learning mode. An acute social conscience guided his work. His creativity matched the ease with which he spoke, and his thinking was so organized that there was a logical outline if you took notes. It is no wonder so many have taken him as the model for child mental health professionals.
WILLIAM C. MORSE
REFERENCES
Knitzer, J., Steinberg, Z. & Fleisch, B. (1990). The School House Door. New York. Bank Street College of Education.
Redl, F. (1966). When We Deal With Children. New York. Free Press.
An extract from the Introduction to his book:
Morse, W.C. (Ed.) (1991). Crisis
Intervention in Residential Treatment: The clinical innovations of Fritz
Redl. New York. Haworth Press. pp. 1-4.
