A Study of the Program for Emotionally Disturbed Children in New York State Mental Hospitals, 1924-1948
Abstract
Shortly after the turn of the century, psychiatry began to focus its attention on the prevention of mental illness, in keeping with the mental hygiene aims of the National Health Program. Up to that time, emphasis had been placed mainly on hospitalization and treatment. Freud’s recognition of the importance of certain psychogenic factors in the early development of the personality enabled the psychiatrist to attack the roots of mental disease. An understanding of the development of personality and its relation to mental disease crystallized more and more and after World War I was given concrete application. Child guidance clinic units were then being established in health clinics, hospitals and schools throughout certain areas of the country. Their early growth was slow, but during the thirties the movement gained considerable impetus so that today child guidance is recognized as a valid and essential part of the country’s total health program. Following World War II there were approximately 400 mental clinics in the United states.
Subject Area
Mental health|Clinical psychology|Social work
Recommended Citation
Murray, John William, "A Study of the Program for Emotionally Disturbed Children in New York State Mental Hospitals, 1924-1948" (1951). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30509585.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30509585
