ABSTRACT

SUMMARY. The issue of violence in childhood and society is reviewed from the comparative perspective of the care of children by Anna Freud and her colleagues during the bombing of World War II and the plight of seriously troubled children and adolescents living in poverty and in violent families in contemporary society. Violence among these children is understood as a response to a world experience that is depleting and overwhelming; some sense of being alive is provided through aggressive behavior. It is proposed that the concepts of the therapeutic milieu as originally elaborated by Aichhorn, Bettelheim, and Redl and Wineman remain valuable in our present-day efforts to foster enhanced capacity for tension management and ego development via techniques of crisis management within the group living situation, incorporating the life-space or marginal interview, therapeutic education, and psychotherapy. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: <getinfo@haworth pressinc.com> Website: < https://www.HawortliPress.com >]