“An oedipal conflict on an epileptic basis”:the diagnosing and treatment of behavioural problems in a Dutch child psychiatric clinic (1952–1962)

This article discusses the diagnosing and treatment of behavioural problems in a pioneering Dutch child psychiatric clinic in the 1950s. This was headed by Theo Hart de Ruyter, the first Dutch professor of child psychiatry and a psychoanalyst. It is generally assumed that during postwar years child psychiatry was primarily influenced by Freudianism with its focus on a nurture-related aetiology of children’s behavioural problems. This assumption has, however, not been tested for the clinical practice. Did nature-bound explanations – referring to a child’s neurological constitution, hereditary p... Mehr ...