In the interests of the child: psychiatry,adoption, and the emancipation of the single mother and her child – the case of the Netherlands (1945–1970)

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses illegitimacy and single motherhood in the postwar period in the Netherlands from the perspective of what was considered to be in the interests of the child: being adopted by a married couple or being raised by the birthmother. It focuses particularly on the impact of psychiatry and the legalization of adoption in 1956 on the emancipation of the single mother and her child. The paper argues that the release of single motherhood and illegitimacy from the moral-religious stigmata of a “sinful fallen woman” and a “damned” or “degenerated” child has, in the Dutch case, not proceeded as a linear process. The process of emancipation toward proud and independent lone motherhood stagnated in the 1950s and 1960s because, when adoption was legalized, illegitimacy became an issue over which scientists, especially psychiatrists, gained the power of expert control. Guided by dynamic psychology and what they conceived of as the best interests of the child they declared single mothers to be victims of “sociopathology” and, consequently, unfit for motherhood. Adoption became the preferred option. This medicalised approach continued to dominate until the reawakening of feminism in the late 1960s made self-sufficient lone motherhood once more a respectable choice.     

Westward bound? Dutch education and cultural transfer in the mid-twentieth century

This article discusses the transition from philosophy to psychology as the main source of inspiration for education during the mid-twentieth century in the Netherlands, situated between Germany in the east and the English-speaking world in the west. Claims have been made that educational theory in the Netherlands was dominated by German philosophy before 1945 and subsequently turned westward for inspiration. The transnational transfer of ideas and concepts to the Netherlands is studied using textbooks on childhood and education for teachers-to-be, published between 1925 and 1970, as sources. Did the Dutch indeed turn from the east to the west for inspiration, and if so when and along the lines of which theories? This article shows that the authors of the textbooks did not simply copy theories from abroad, but gave them a reading of their own and selected what they liked. A shift from the east to the west as a source of inspiration did not occur before the 1970s. Developmentalism, personalism, phenomenology, characterology and individual psychology were all imported from German-speaking countries. It is true that some of these theories were brought to the west as their founders fled Nazism, but that does not undo their continental European origins.     

Fresh air and good food: children and the anti‐tuberculosis campaign in the Netherlands c.1900–1940

As elsewhere in the Western world, between 1900 and 1940 the anti‐tuberculosis campaign in the Netherlands produced a wide range of initiatives to promote child health. In each of these the social and the medical were linked, as the hygienic ‘mood’ was encouraged by a child‐saving ethos that focused upon the poor. In this article the author discusses the choices that were made between anti‐tuberculosis interventions for children, the benefits projected on each of these and the categories of children for whom they were meant. Private and voluntary initiatives dominated the field, whereas the state turned out to be very reluctant to take responsibility. Medically controlled health camps for ‘weak’ children were a more important instrument than open‐air schools and mass medical examination. Medical surveillance produced new categories and data which in turn justified the continued growth of child hygiene after tuberculosis had become less of a threat during the 1930s.     

Book Review

This book is a good example of the contribution a clear conceptual analysis can make to highlighting and clarifying problematic thinking about real issues in education. In the literature there are different claims of varying strength and plausibility which require very careful sorting. David Carr demonstrates such careful sorting in the difficult field of ethics and maps some paths for fruitful thinking about professionalism in teaching. 'The distinctions of Peters and others between education and teaching, theory and practice, and intrinsic and instrumental value, stand in need of more careful mapping and refinement' which could enable us to steer clear of 'educationally pernicious conclusions' (p. 179). Carr succeeds in doing just this.     

Child guidance,dynamic psychology and the psychopathologisation of child-rearing culture (c. 1920-1940): a transnational perspective

ABSTRACT

The historiography of child guidance has focused primarily on the United States, where it first developed before travelling across the English-speaking world. The rapid expansion of child guidance in the interwar years was enabled by private philanthropy, which provided fellowships to foreign professionals to study in the United States. This article focuses upon the transnational transfer of child guidance, the dynamic psychology on which it was based, and the accompanying psychopathologisation of child-rearing culture to a non-English speaking country, the Netherlands. First, it discusses the development of child guidance and the reception of dynamic psychology in the United States and Britain. Next, it analyses the transfer to the Netherlands. It turns out that the Dutch did not copy the American model, but adapted it to fit their conditions and created a more diverse child guidance landscape, in which educational psychology played a less important role than child psychiatry.     

Monitoring child health: school doctors at work in a Dutch rural area (1930–1970)

From 1948 the World Health Organization expected child hygiene to include mental health. This article discusses the way school doctors adapted their activities and concerns accordingly in the mid-twentieth century in an agrarian-industrial area of the Netherlands. In spite of an improvement in pupils’ physical health they shifted their attention only to a limited extent towards mental health. Nevertheless, it became an important aspect of their work, as they stimulated activities they conceived of as promoting both physical and mental health, such as gymnastics and swimming. Their key interest concerned mental deficiency and the promotion of special schooling. In this respect they played a very active role, to the extent of producing ‘feeblemindedness’ and learning disabilities. At the same time the school doctors clung to their traditional ideal of supporting the school’s effectiveness by trying to reduce possible dangers threatening pupils’ learning capacity and, increasingly, their mental well-being.     

A culture of knowledge production: testing and observation of Dutch children with learning and behavioural problems (1949–1985)

Abstract

This article focuses on the role the Dutch school for children with “learning and behavioural problems” (LOM) has played in knowledge production about learning disabilities and in the development of academic study of special education between 1949 and 1985. LOM-schooling grew rapidly during these years and attracted relatively many experts. In the selection and admission of LOM-children they had to be distinguished from normal, mentally deficient, and “very difficult” children. Around 1970 experts shifted their focus from the distinction between LOM-children and the latter to the difference between LOM- and mildly mentally retarded children, which turned out to be too small in the end to justify a separate school. The LOM-school’s culture of knowledge production has stimulated both testing and the study of learning problems and their treatment. It functioned as a laboratory for the development of therapeutic treatment for learning disabilities. In particular, the systematic reflection on the practice of remedial teaching was relevant in the development of child science.     

In search of the unconscious: the science-based diagnostic observation of girls in a Dutch reformatory in the 1950s

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the science-based diagnostic observation in a Dutch girls’ reformatory in the 1950s. Scientisation of the observation implied that to the medical examination upon entry and observation of a child’s behaviour were added a psychological assessment, a psychiatric examination, and an inquiry into the family of origin. Inspired by dynamic psychology it was part of a strategy to promote a more professional and individualised treatment in child protection. The research addresses the claims to an additional value of child science in this procedure. It turns out that the psychological and psychiatric knowledges weighed heavier than the input from non-academic staff in regard to the representation of a girl in the observation report and advice to the juvenile court. Information concerning a girl’s observed behaviour and acceptance in the group was overruled by Freudian beliefs regarding the consequences of early childhood experiences for her unconscious feelings.