Acute Neurotic Breakdown in Children with Refusal to go to School

Enjeux et perspectives psychopathologiques de la phobie scolaire

“…Dans cette perspective, la mère de l'enfant « phobique scolaire » est le support inconscient des peurs de l'enfant par une forte complaisance aux plaintes que peut exprimer ce dernier à l'endroit de l'école. Warren (1948) compare des enfants entre neuf et quatorze ans présentant un refus angoissé d'aller à l'école et des écoliers des buissons [8]. Les premiers sont considé-rés comme névrotiques et décrits -malgré leurs performances intellectuelles et scolaires -comme timides et très dépendants vis-à-vis des mères généralement fragiles au plan émotion-nel.…”

School Phobia: A Review of Some Issues

“…4. The emotional upset shown by school phobic children has been characterized mainly as timidity and fearfulness, particularly away from home, and also tempers and defiance, especially at home (Partridge, 1939;Johnson et ai, 1941;Klein, 1945;Warren, 1948;Waldfogel et ai, 1957;Morgan 1959;Hersov, 1960b).…”

“…or school refusal (Morgan, 1959). have great difficulty in attending school as a result of a neurotic disturbance,)md that this is quite distinct from truancy, which is more often part of an anti-social or conduct disorder (Warren, 1948;Hersov, 1960a). School phobia is a condition which involves more than a simple fear of school.…”

Combined Therapies in a Family Group

“…These children are not truants who dis-like school (8,41) but those who are ex cessively attached to their mothers or 'mother philias' (23). Many authors see the problem involving the whole family in which there is a fairly constant pat tern of an ambivalent, over-protective mother and a remote ineffectual father (13,48,51). Logically the whole family should be treated (35).…”