Wayward Youth

combined to produce Searchlights on Delinquency, a volume of essays, in honour of Aichhorn's 70th birthday. The editor of that book, K. R. Eissler, has written a biographical sketch of Aichhorn especially for this edition. Aichhorn was first and foremost an intuitive worker of genius, and had made a reputation with his Vienna institution for delinquent boys, some years before he discovered psycho-analysis. But in this new science he found at last the rationale he needed for the methods of rehabilitation which he was working out in practice. He was no protagonist of either " discipline " or " freedom " in the abstract, but believed in adapting the form of treatment to the psychological needs of each particular child. Thus the delinquent who had been overprotected at home, and so had never needed to accommodate himself to the problems of life, would be continually brought face to face with them and with the frustrations implicit in them. The child whose delinquency could be attributed to harsh treatment, on the other hand, would be met with love and tolerance in order that he might regain confidence in his ability to meet and tackle life at a mature and law-abiding level.