Dr Ratcliffe had long experience lecturing to a wide variety of audiences as a child psychiatrist. This title, originally published in 1970, is a collection of twelve of these lectures, given by him on various 'special occasions' during the years prior to publication, in which he emphasized the importance of environmental factors in understanding and working with children.

The subjects include residential work with children, school phobia, adolescence, the problem family, relationship therapy and casework, the three-generation family, and child guidance techniques. The final chapter, based on a lecture originally given in the early years of the community mental health and social services, makes particularly interesting reading in the light of subsequent developments in these services.

At the time this book would have been of great interest not only to professional workers, including doctors, teachers, child care officers, residential staff and health visitors, but equally to the student in each of these fields, and to the lay person who is genuinely concerned with children – and adults. Now it can be enjoyed in its historical context.