ABSTRACT
Paediatrics is based on a priori knowledge of physical growth, and of disorders of body growth and body functioning. Psychiatry is based on an understanding of the emotional growth of the normal infant, child, adolescent, and adult, and of the developing relationship of the individual to external reality. The place of academic psychology stands at the borderline between physical growth and emotional growth. The academic psychologist studies manifestations which, although they are psychological, do in fact belong to physical growth. The study of the healthy child, however, involves the paediatrician more and more in the provision of conditions for that study which are near to those that are natural to the child and far removed from the controlled conditions of a laboratory. Academic psychology is an important adjunct to the general study of emotional development. Emotional development starts at an early date, round about the birth date, and leads towards the mature adult.
