Book description
In 2009-2010, The Squiggle Foundation, whose aim is to stimulate
interest in the work of Donald Winnicott, organized a series of lectures
on the theme of "the antisocial tendency". These lectures are
offered here to the wider public much as they were originally given. The
speakers, each one an established figure in child care policy or in the
residential and therapeutic management of disaffected youngsters,
reflect on society's changing attitudes towards antisocial behaviour and
its manifestations over the past half century. They consider how altered
childrearing practices, the greater incidence of family break-up, and
the increasing part played by central government in the determination of
child care policies, have contributed to a shift towards the more
punitive attitudes towards "wayward youth" prevalent today.
Brief, pointed, and accessible, these lectures address topics of
contemporary social concern by identifying some of the underlying
questions to be asked regarding the child, the family, and society in a
mass-communication and mass-organized environment.
