ABSTRACT

The writings of Goldstein, Freud and Solnit, particularly some of the concepts they developed, have exercised a profound influence on our thinking about children. A new, revamped, final, authoritative edition presents the opportunity for critical re-assessment. The author finds a partial analytical framework, a dated image of children, a narrow concept of children’s rights, triggers for intervention which leave children dangerously exposed and, above all, a sense that events have moved on leaving the most influential text of this generation firmly rooted in the ideas, problems and concepts of the last.