One of the outstanding differences of psychotherapy with children as distinguished from the treatment of adults is the fact that one’s activity is not restricted to just one patient, the sick child, but that one has to deal with the parents and other significant people of the child’s environment as well. Without undue exaggeration one might say that in many cases it is the parents who constitute the real problem in child psychiatry. They often seek help for their own difficulties in rearing their children, for their anxiety and guilt, and for their own annoyance and disappointment about the child’s symptoms and shortcomings. I intend to discuss in this paper some problems in the handling of parents which I have encountered in the private practice of child psychiatry. I shall focus on those aspects which I personally have found difficult and many of which have remained unsolved problems in my daily work. I wish to apologize for presenting a paper which raises new questions instead of answering them. But I do hope to stimulate further thought by raising these questions and to clarify at least some of the issues involved.

儿童心理治疗与成人心理治疗的显着区别之一是，一个人的活动不仅限于一个病人，即生病的孩子，而且必须与孩子的父母和其他重要人物打交道。环境也一样。可以毫不夸张地说，在许多情况下，构成儿童精神病学真正问题的是父母。他们常常为自己在抚养孩子方面的困难、焦虑和内疚，以及自己对孩子的症状和缺点的烦恼和失望而寻求帮助。我打算在本文中讨论一些我在私人儿童精神病学实践中遇到的父母处理问题。我将重点介绍我个人认为困难的方面，其中许多方面在我的日常工作中仍然没有解决。我想为提交的论文提出新问题而不是回答问题而道歉。但我确实希望通过提出这些问题来激发进一步的思考，并至少澄清一些所涉及的问题。