ABSTRACT
In her introduction, Judith Trowell raises the question of what Donald Winnicott means by “management”. She goes on to illustrate, through some cases, the importance of fathers, and then comments on some of the benefits of a therapeutic residential setting, where there are a range of possible relationships on offer. The boy tried to conform, but soon became involved in delinquency and was known to the police. Like terrorists, or members of an underground resistance cell, these boys feel, in a way that they cannot articulate, that their delinquency constitutes a courageous struggle for freedom against an evil adult regime. Tommy and his elder brothers were taken away when Tommy was eighteen months old, then returned for a while, then taken away again. Restraining Tommy when he tried to hurt people or when he smashed the windows went side-by-side with talking to him about why he was doing it—conversations in which both adults and children participated.
