ABSTRACT
School phobia most certainly exists as a clinical entity. Indeed, it represents one of the comparatively few real clinical emergencies of child psychiatric practice. The policy of some authorities is to refer all cases of non-attendance at school to their school health or child guidance services; others prosecute the parents; others bring the child before the Juvenile Court. Some authorities appear to do nothing at all! It is tempting to assume that these different decisions and actions are a matter of arbitrary choice rather than that they are based on the needs of the individual case. The school refusal, both in its motivation and pattern, will be another result of this weakly evasive, and narcissistically manipulative, technique. Typically there will be protestations, often dramatically stated, abqut the wish to return to school; but, unlike the sufferer from school phobia, this child will make no actual attempt to go back to school.
