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25 JANUARY 2010

NO 1533

The therapeutic process

In the therapeutic situation, children, whether disturbed or "adjusted," tend to express similar types of negative attitudes in their play. They reflect fear and anger toward parents, siblings, and other significant individuals in their lives. They sometimes show anxiety in connection with cleanliness and orderliness, or regress in speech, thinking, eating, toileting, and motor behavior.

Children labeled as well adjusted and those considered disturbed differ in the frequency and intensity with which they express negative attitudes (9). In "well-adjusted" children, negative attitudes are expressed less often, with less intensity, and with more focus and direction. In disturbed children negative attitudes are expressed frequently and strongly, with less focus and direction. When feelings are expressed indirectly and diffusely, there is little release or satisfaction and the feelings continue to grow inside the person.

The disturbed child has been impaired in his growth of self. Somewhere along the line, he began to doubt his own powers for self-development. His faith in himself and his self-reliance have been shattered. He does not trust himself and he does not trust others. He is unable to utilize his potentiality to grow with experience.

The disturbed child is often motivated by undifferentiated and unfocused feelings of anger and fear (1). His behavior may manifest feelings of hostility toward almost everyone and everything (5,7). Or his main expression may be an attitude of generalized fear (5). Wherever 'a hostility is expressed in the child's overt behavior, anxiety is potentially a strong internal attitude and significantly affects the child's behavior. Wherever anxiety is the primary outer expression, hostility usually lies beneath it (5) and influences much of the child's behavior. These attitudes are an outgrowth of the child's personal relationships in the early years of his life (3). Parents gradually, often subtly and indirectly, convey to the child that they consider him a person of limited value and potentiality. The child will not at first show feelings of strong anger or fear, but as demands are made upon him and pressures increase, his feelings become generalized and diffused. Eventually he loses touch with the situations which aroused his deep feelings of self-inadequacy. He loses touch with his own real feelings, with himself.

If in his family he is permitted to express self-alienation only through anxious behavior, then his acts will show strong components of withdrawal and fear (5). The original feeling of being attacked as a self arouses hostility which grows and expands internally, just as his expressions of anxiety become more intense in his external behavior. If hostile expressions are permitted in his family, the child may freely express diffused angry feelings. As the disturbed child acts in a hostile manner, his feelings of guilt and anxiety are intensified. Expressions of anxiety and hostility never appear in isolation from each other, but one of these attitudes is usually expressed in the child's overt behavior.

Since the disturbed child can defend himself only as he appears to be, he is unable to develop his potentiality (10, 11). There is apparently no way he can grow though inward growth forces are always present and may find expression in a positive personal relationship.

The disturbed child has lost touch with his real self. He no longer knows who he is or what he can do. It is this loss of self which is his basic suffering.

CLARK E. MOUSTAKAS

Moustakas, C.E. (1959). Psychotherapy with children: The living relationship. New York. Ballantine Books. pp. 27-29.

REFERENCES

1. Anderson, John E. (1942). The Relation of Emotional Behavior to Learning. Yearbk. Nat. Soc. Stud. Educ., 41, 2.

3. Bernard, Jessie. (1942). American Family Behavior. New York: Harper.

5. Horney, Karen. (1937). The Neurotic Personality of Our Time. New York: Norton.

7. Korner, Anneliese F. (1949). Some Aspects of Hostility in Young Children. New York: Grune & Stratton.

9.Moustakas, C.E. (1955).The Frequency and Intensity of Negative Attitudes Expressed in Play Therapy: A Comparison of Well-Adjusted and Disturbed Young Children. (1955). Journal of General Psychology, 86. pp. 79-99.

10. Rogers, Carl R. (1951). Client-centered Therapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

11. Snygg, Donald, and Combs, Arthur W. (1949). Individual Behavior. New York: Harper.

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