ABSTRACT
A perspective informed by a knowledge of the main features of emotional development and by some psychoanalytic ideas can contribute some useful observations about what kind of experience is food for the mind. The mental food that therapy offers is a therapeutic relationship in which feelings are named and located. In order to do this a child therapist must appreciate the origins of the child's crippling anxieties which have interfered with ordinary development. In general what is food for the mind needs to be something which reflects the force of this. The experience of Darren and George and children like them, confirms that human beings do have a certain innate ability to make judgements of life experience. Better food and housing, a proper balance of work and rest, access to open space and opportunities for healthy exercise, cleaner air and controlling pollution of the land and sea are all consequences of social policies aimed at improving the quality of life.
