ABSTRACT
Daniel was 13 months old when his parents agreed to see a child psychiatrist out of desperation. Daniel was biting “everyone around him”. Daniel’s choice of people to bite appeared to show no discernible pattern; if most occasions followed “signs of anger or frustration”, there were other times when Daniel would bite someone with no recognisable emotional affect. Daniel’s parents were young professionals. Mrs D’s pregnancy and labour had been normal and Daniel was developing normally. Mr and Mrs D told to the author of the multitude of colleagues, friends, relations, health visitors, and doctors, who had given them advice on how to help Daniel to stop his biting. Among other things, they had told him off, they had hit him, bitten him back, put strong-flavoured substances on his lips, put him in his cot, strapped him on his chair, etc.—all to no avail.
