ABSTRACT
My chief reason for undertaking this project was that I wished to test certain aspects of psycho-analytic theory about the development of neurotic and delinquent children by using some of the systematic methods and tests of general psychology. I hoped that such a verificatory study might contribute in some measure to bridging the gap between academic psychology and psychoanalysis and facilitate communication between the social sciences generally. The combination of methods used in the investigation has, without doubt, proved extremely valuable. The strict procedures of general psychology used in the planning and organization of the research have yielded very interesting results when applied to hypotheses derived from earlier investigations, and in particular from psychoanalytic studies of children's emotional development. My fellow-workers in the Child Guidance Service and I feel confident that we have effectively demonstrated the need for combining the outlook of dynamic psychology with the technical methods of modern research work. I do not wish to under-estimate the many difficulties which He in the way of such team collaboration; but rather to claim that the combination of methods used to obtain and to analyse our data has provided special and important information about a wide variety of influences affecting neurotic and delinquent behaviour which are often ignored in social planning and administration.
