EXTRA-SCIENTIFIC INFLUENCES IN THE HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
M. B. MACMILLAN B.SC.1
1 Travancore Clinic, Flemington, Victoria, Australia.
This paper attempts to account for the peculiarities in the development of 19th century knowledge of the psychotic child in terms of both scientific and extra-scientific factors.
It is argued that extra-scientific factors determined the early interest in the defective child with whom the psychotic child was first classed. A combination of both scientific and extra-scientific factors is claimed to account for the almost complete lack of interest in the problem in the second half of the century. An attempt is also made to account for the differences between the views of Griesinger and Maudsley.
