The Demonstration Clinic for the Psychological Study and Treatment of Mother and Child in Medical Practice

This book provides a most readable illustration of the way in which psychological understanding by the physician can be used for the study and treatment of the emotional life of the children seen in a child health center. The use of verbatim recordings of interviews is an invaluable tool for the teaching of psychological interviewing techniques.

Dr. Leona Baumgartner says in the introduction (page vii) that perhaps one of the reasons the "demonstration clinic" has been so widely accepted is that the project has been built on the existing skills and attitudes of the doctors. It has emphasized the physiological approach, without attempting to give the physicians a long period of "psychiatric orientation." This is perhaps one of the pitfalls of the program. Psychiatry has discovered and organized a certain body of knowledge which is essential for understanding child behavior and development. Without this basic knowledge the physicians in these