A Statistical Survey of Cases Accepted at Intake by the Italian Board of Guardians for Treatment in 1950
Abstract
No child is born bad. This concept is today universally accepted among social workers and other allied professions as well. The newborn baby is innately endowed only with potentiality. In other words, the infant has merely the capacity to love or hate, to be happy or unhappy, to conform or not to conform, depending upon the environment into which he is placed. The environment which has this far-reaching effect upon the child 's development is namely the family unit. It is precisely the parent-child relationships during the child’s formative years that play the important role of molding the child’s personality and character. This belief is clearly brought out in Freud’s statement that the first five years of life are the individual’s most important. Many people, although not professionally trained, can easily understand the great dependency the infant has upon the family, especially upon the mother figure. The infant is born physically helpless and must depend upon the family for nourishment, shelter, and protection. In addition to these material necessities, the infant depends also upon the family for love, security and understanding, and for a feeling of belonging and of being wanted. When these dependency needs as well as subsequent needs in accordance with the child’s maturity are not satisfactorily met, the child soon begins to manifest symptomatic behavior problems.
Subject Area
Clinical psychology|Social work|Behavioral psychology
Recommended Citation
Langenfeld, Nicholas J, "A Statistical Survey of Cases Accepted at Intake by the Italian Board of Guardians for Treatment in 1950" (1952). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30509578.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30509578
