Selma Fraiberg's Magic Years - a new series by Joel Kanter

The first two parts of Joel Kanter's series of articles about Selma Fraiberg are now available to read in the goodenoughcaring Journal.

The first artcle Fraiberg Remembered Part One The Magic Years can be found at Fraiberg Remembered Part One The Magic Years

The second Selma Fraiberg's Magic Years Part Two "An unconventional Analytic training" can be read at Fraiberg's Magic Years Part Two An Unconventional Training

John Cross, (1931 - 2017)

John Cross

John Cross, for over 60 years an influential figure in the field of planned environment therapy in therapeutic communities for children has died aged 85 at his home in Cheltenham. He retired from his role as Director of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust in 2012. Until the onset of his illness in the autumn of 2015,  John continued to be  involved in the daily life of PETT at Toddington in Gloucestershire.

In 1952, his early ambition to take up a place at Durham University and  to become a politician faded on the completion of his National Service when the direction of his life was altered by a summer placement at Bodenham Manor School where David Wills was the Warden. John decided that what was going on at the school felt right and that shared experience in a therapeutic community would provide the pathway for his life. In the following decades John was engaged in the community life of Bodenham Manor School, Herefordshire, Ashley House Remand Home, Worksop, New Heys Reception Centre, Liverpool and New Barns School, Toddington.

At the same time as he was engaged as a member of the group of children and adults at New Barns John became a psychotherapist, served as a magistrate in the Juvenile Justice System, was the Chairman of the Youth and Family Courts and  Vice Chairman of the Gloucestershire Probation Committee.

John maintained his relationships with those who had been with him and his colleagues at New Barns. Over the years he became a ‘best man’ at their weddings and a godparent at the christening of their children many times over.

John played an influential role in a number of other organisations. He was a founding member of the Association of Workers with Maladjusted Children (AWMC) which later became the Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties Association (SEBDA) and for over 40 years served on its Council. Prior to his death was John was the only living founding member of PETT. He was a founding member of other groups too including the Charterhouse Group, Young Minds and the Child Care History Network.

Over his career John wrote and presented a number of influential papers about therapeutic communities and planned environment therapy and he co-authored the controversial 1979 Quaker publication Six Quakers Look at Crime and Punishment: A Study Paper.

John was a Quaker. He was a man modest about his achievements. For him achievement was the shared experience of a community. John is survived by his two sisters Sybil and Cynthia. He will be sorely missed and fondly remembered by so many of the people with whom he shared experience and a community life.

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Here is the text of an interview with John from 2010 and this is the article he wrote for the goodenoughcaring Journal in 2012, Some tentative thoughts on the concept of planned environment therapy is at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/the-journal/some-tentative-thoughts-on-the-concept-of-planned-environment-therapy/

This month's goodenoughcaring Journal author: Cynthia Cross

Each month during 2017 we are highlighting articles of authors who have contributed to the goodenoughcaring Journal over the years. The first author featured in this series is Cynthia Cross. The articles we have selected are  Acceptance,  Winnicott and Residential Work and Defensive Adults.

There are a number of other excellent articles written by Cynthia to be found in the goodenoughcaring Journal. Cynthia welcomes discussion of the issues she raises and comments about them can be mailed to goodenoughcaring@icloud.com

In brief, more Winnicott on Adolescence

“Is it not a prime characteristic of adolescents that they do not accept false solutions? They have a fierce morality which accepts only that which feels real, and this is a morality that also characterizes infancy. It is a morality that goes much deeper than wickedness, and has as its motto, ‘to thine own self be true’. The adolescent is engaged in trying to find the self to be true to.       This is linked with the fact that, as I have said, the cure for adolescence is the passage of time, a fact which has very little meaning for the adolescent.”

Excerpt From: D. W. Winnicott, Clare Winnicott, Ray Shepherd & Madeleine Davis (1984) Deprivation and Delinquency.  London, Tavistock Publications

A number of interesting articles about Winnicott and his ideas can be found at the goodenoughcaring Journal and in Writings on the goodenoughcaring website

This entry was posted in goodenoughcaring.com on February 3, 2017.

Something to consider : Adam Phillips on teaching

‘The only reason to go to school, that I can see, is to make friends whom you love and like. If you’re lucky, you find something that really interests you. You’ve got to learn to read and write and basic numeracy and so on, but, other than that, it’s absolutely pointless to teach children things that they’re not interested in. The education system needs to factor that in. I remember one of my daughter’s teachers saying to me, “She only works at the subjects she’s interested in.” I was thinking, Great! That would be the point. You go to school, and teachers offer you the things they think are good, but you choose them. It’s always true that the student chooses the teacher.’

This is an extract from  Sameer Padania’s 2010 interview with the psychoanalyst and essayist Adam Phillips for Bomb Magazine. The full text of the interview can be found at   http://bombmagazine.org/article/3623/adam-phillips

This entry was posted on the home page of the goodenoughcaring.com on January 11, 2017.

Issue 20 of the goodenoughcaring Journal is now online

The final scheduled issue of the goodenoughcaring Journal is now online. Articles submitted or commissioned in the future will continue to be published but regular readers will we relieved to know that after the next one they will know longer have to read the promotional email we send out to you every six months.
This issue is an interesting and informative one, a challenging one, a controversial one and perhaps a disturbing one. We would welcome and encourage your comments on any of the articles.

In this issue :-
Dr. Elaine Arnold tells of the significance education held for immigrants to the United Kingdom from the Caribbean while Margaret Hughes recollects the City of Birmingham’s efforts to meet the social and educational needs of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent and elsewhere in the 1950s,60s,70s and 80s.
Noel Howard discusses religion, spirituality and the importance of place in social care. Michael J Marlowe considers how relationships may be made with children who are difficult to reach and Maurice Fenton proposes and develops a concept of ‘relationship based self-care.’
Alex Russon reflects on relocating with his young family from the midlands of England to the north-east of Scotland and Justin Frost reviews three feature films which deal with divorce, parenting and family break up.
Cynthia Cross examines the issues which can lead to a cycle of disruption in residential child care. Maurice Fenton proposes and develops the concept of ‘relationship based self-care.’ In a further article he contemplates the notion of ‘vicarious confidence’ in the care of children and young people and Simon Blades reviews Maurice’s latest book ‘The Stolen Child’.
Colin Maginn proposes that we can do better than good enough caring. John Stein recalls how times have changed in child and youth care. In a second article Elaine Arnold argues that aspects of attachment theory remain significant throughout life.
Mark Smith has written a startling, challenging and important article on the prosecution of those accused of child sexual abuse.
In his editorial Charles Sharpe has attempts a brief explanation of what those who founded the Journal believed goodenoughcaring to be and with it he provides a brief history of the goodenoughcaring Journal.

We hope you find something to interest you in this issue. We’d like to thank all the people who have written for us and helped build up this superb archive about children growing up and the adults who care for them and educate them. Each piece of writing is interesting and thought provoking. The archive will remain open for everyone who is interested in the nurturing of children. News items will continue to appear on the home page and occasional articles will be published when they are submitted.
Finally we would like to thank the hundreds of thousands of people who visit and read the Journal. It is good to be part of this community.

Not long now: the 20th goodenoughcaring Journal goes online December 15th, 2016

Issue 20 is published online tomorrow.

Elaine Arnold writes about the significance education had for immigrants to the United Kingdom from the Caribbean while Margaret Hughes recollects the City of Birmingham’s efforts to meet the social and educational needs of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent in the 1950s,60s,70s and 80s.

Noel Howard considers religion, spirituality and the importance of place in social care. Michael J Marlowe examines the making of relationships with children who are difficult to reach and Maurice Fenton proposes and develops the concept of ‘relationship based self-care.’

Alex Russon considers the implications of relocating a family to another region and Justin Frostreviews three feature films which deal with divorce and the break up of the family.

Cynthia Cross considers how to break the cycle of disruption which exists in residential child care.

In a further article Maurice Fenton contemplates ‘vicarious confidence’ in the care of children and young people and Simon Blades reviews Maurice’s latest book  ‘The Stolen Child’.

Colin Maginn proposes that we can do better than good enough caring and in response Charles Sharpe writes briefly about the history of the goodenoughcaring Journal and the idea of good-enough caring.

John Stein thinks about how times have changed in child and youth care. In another article Elaine Arnold argues that aspects of attachment theory remain significant throughout life. Mark Smith provides a challenging article on the prosecution of those accused of child sexual abuse.

This entry was first posted on the home page of  goodenoughcaring.com website on December 13, 2016

The goodenoughcaring Journal 20 : a very special issue

On December 15th, 2016,  issue 20 of the goodenoughcaring Journal goes online. It is a special issue because it will as ever be full of original articles about aspects of childhood, but also because it will be the last scheduled issue of the Journal. New articles will continue to be posted on the Journal site as and when they are submitted, and of course all the articles from all previous the issues of the goodenoughcaring Journal will continue to be available online as an archive available to all readers.  Submissions for the December issue are still welcome and will be accepted up to December 8th.

Details of the articles already submitted for this next issue will appear on this page in the next few days.

This entry was posted on the home page of goodenoughcaring.com on November 15, 2016

Something to consider : Winnicott on Adolescence

“It comes down to a problem of: how to be adolescent during adolescence? This is an extremely brave thing for anybody to be. It does not mean that we grown-ups have to be saying: ‘Look at these dear little adolescents having their adolescence; we must put up with everything and let our windows get broken.’ This is not the point. The point is that we are challenged and we meet the challenge as part of the function of adult living. But we meet the challenge rather than set out to cure what is essentially healthy.
The big threat from the adolescent is the threat to the bit of ourselves that has not really had its adolescence. This bit of ourselves makes us resent these people being able to have their phase of the doldrums and makes us want to find a solution for them. There are hundreds of false solutions. Anything we say or do is wrong. We give support and we are wrong, we withdraw support and that is wrong too. We dare not be ‘understanding’. But in the course of time we find that this adolescent boy and this adolescent girl has come out of the doldrums phase and is now able to begin identifying with society, with parents, and with wider groups, and to do so without feeling threatened with personal extinction.”

Extracted from: D. W. Winnicott, Clare Winnicott, Ray Shepherd & Madeleine Davis. Deprivation and Delinquency. iBooks.  First published by Tavistock Publications, London, 1984

This entry was posted in goodenoughcaring.com, Opinion on July 23, 2016.

Bob Holman 1936 - 2016

Bob Holman died on June 8th, 2016. He was a man of the community and of community. The story of his life and achievements can be found here

June 15th, 2016 : Issue 19 of the goodenoughcaring Journal is now online

June 15th, 2016 :  Issue 19 of the  goodenoughcaring Journal is now online. In this issue Cynthia Cross writes about children and families attending reviews, Maurice Fenton reflects upon Yeats, Jung and Adolescence,  John Stein considers the nature of feedback, Noel Howard gives an account of  the history of the Irish social care journal Curam which published its 50th issue earlier this year and gives a context to developments in social care in recent decades,  Michael J. Marlowe explores the connection between good relationships and trust,  Justin Frost reviews the film The War Zone, Lesley Morrison writes about residential child care, Charles Sharpe looks at Ian D. Suttie’s ‘attachment to mother’ theory and George Eliot writes about family life in the 1820s. Our Editors think about community and communities. We hope  there is something to interest you in this issue.

Issue 20 of the goodenoughcaring Journal will be published on December 15th, 2016

This entry was posted in goodenoughcaring.com home page on June 15th, 2016

Issue 19 of the goodenoughcaring Journal goes online on June 15th

Issue 19 of the goodenoughcaring Journal goes online on Wednesday, 15th June, 2016. In this issue Cynthia Cross writes about children and families attending reviews, Maurice Fenton reflects upon Yeats, Jung and Adolescence,  John Stein considers the nature of feedback, Noel Howard gives an account of  the history of the Irish social care journal Curam which published its 50th issue earlier this year and gives a context to developments in social care in recent decades,  Michael J. Marlowe explores the connection between good relationships and trust,  Justin Frost reviews the film The War Zone, Lesley Morrison writes about residential child care, Charles Sharpe looks at Ian D. Suttie’s ‘attachment to mother’ theory and George Eliot writes about family life in the 1820s.

This entry was posted on the home page of the  goodenoughcaring  website on June 12th, 2016.

“Where love rules, there is no will to power” : another idea to ponder.

 “Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.”

C.J Jung

Jung no doubt generalised this to all relationships between human beings and human groups and as a maxim it seems to ring true. Is it congruent with parent/child relationships or carer/child relationships ? Is love enough ?

This opinion piece was posted on the home page of  goodenoughcaring.com on May 23, 2016.

Liberating Institutions, a paper by John Burton published by the Centre for Welfare Reform

In what many believe to be a critical time for our social welfare system The Centre for Welfare Reform has just published an exigent and apposite discussion paper Liberating Institutions by John Burton. In this paper John describes the way in which care homes and the people who live and work in them are subjugated  and constricted by a social care system run and regulated for the benefit, protection and preservation of an elite of – mostly well-meaning – politicians, bureaucrats, care organisations and in large part for the profits of owners and shareholders.

However, the author believes that there is an alternative, more hopeful, way to look at the same picture. In every care home there is  another sort of institution trying to get out: a community formed of people in mutual caring relationships in search of self-determination, empowerment and liberation.

John’s paper can be downloaded from the Centre for Welfare Reform’s website here.

John Burton,  an eminent author on social care issues,  has been a generous contributor of articles to the goodenoughcaring journal


This item was first posted on February 25th, 2016 on the home page of goodenoughcaring.com

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Kilquhanity School, John and Morag Aikenhead

Though perhaps less well-known than his friend and mentor from the progressive school movement A.S. Neill,  John Aikenhead, who in 1940 founded Kilquhanity School near Castle Douglas in Scotland was a Scottish educationalist who believed children should be happy at school and encouraged to learn through their own discoveries. He did not believe that learning could be fully achieved by following without question the imperatives of external authorities. He celebrated humanity and its capacity sometimes to achieve things through first getting them wrong and as a consequence of this,  then getting them right. Hence the  Kilquhanity School motto “Freedom, Equality and Inefficiency” is not tongue in cheek.  John Aikenhead, and his wife Morag Aikenhead saw the Kilquhanity School ' experiment in education' through from 1940 until the school closed in 1997 when Aikenhead felt that a natural end had been reached.

You can find more about John Aikenhead  and Kilquhanity School at http://www.braehead.info/html/50_years_young.html  and  http://www.braehead.info/html/john_aitkenhead.htm

This information piece first appeared on the home page of   goodenoughcaring.com on February 8th, 2016

Increasing concern for the growing numbers of homeless families and homeless young people

In his response to our review of Maurice Fenton’s book Social Care and Child Welfare in Ireland Integrating Residential Care and After Care,  John Molloy could also be referring to a matter which is also a critical concern on this side of the Irish Sea. He writes,

I read your review of Maurice Fenton’s book. The Aftercare scene here [in Ireland] is getting worse not better! I am sure you are familiar with the ever increasing numbers of homeless families here in Ireland. Every month a new record is set. We have long ago surpassed previous record numbers of the 1980’s and 1950’s. There is a massive housing shortage and rents are rising constantly to the point where many cannot afford to pay. Young people leaving residential and foster care have no chance of getting private rented accommodation because landlords will not accept welfare cheques. Some residential centres are being log-jammed because they cannot move over 18’s on. Our kids are on the bottom pile.

Recently we admitted a boy a few months past his 17th birthdate. We have since been told that he will not be eligible for aftercare when he turns 18. When we challenged this we were told of a regulation that states the young person must spend a full year in residential or foster care to be entitled to aftercare. When asked to explain the thinking behind this we were told that if everyone was entitled to aftercare then there would be a rush of young people wanting to be in care! 

That comment apparently came from a Government Minister. 

In the meantime we opeed an aftercare or “transition Housing” project. This is an unsupervised home where 4 over-eighteen year olds live in what is called a “a congregational setting”. The emphasis I am placing is that the model is geared to emphasise peer-support to get around problems of loneliness, support networking etc. Strangely enough I am finding that the young people are resistant to this in some ways leading me to think that they would prefer to live in a more regimented Children’s Home type model. There is no winning!

This opinion item  first appeared on the goodenoughcaring website on January 5th, 2016 

Issue 18 of the goodenoughcaring Journal

  December 15th,  2015 : Issue 18 of the goodenoughcaring Journal,  is now online. We hope you find things in it which interest you.

Elaine Arnold writes about the importance of considering attachment theory for the support of those who have become separated from their families, Denise Carroll and Mark Smith

tell of recent research into the co-working of mental health and residential care workers, Cynthia Cross writes about defensiveness in adults who look after children, Maurice Fenton writes about his underlying reasons for writing his latest book, Justin Frost reviews Ken Loach’s classic film Family Life, Alex Russon writes about David, John Stein reconsiders the potential of a points system in group work with young people, Patrick Tomlinson explores the significance of Empathy in communication with troubled children, John Whitwell provides an account of the therapeutic community approach, Nigel Wilson thinks about statements of purpose in children’s homes and Charles Sharpe reviews Maurice Fenton’s book Social Care and Child Welfare in Ireland Integrating Residential Care, Leaving Care and Aftercare. This issue's editorial is More for less or more and better.

The next issue of the goodenoughcaring Journal will published on June 15th, 2016.

You can hear that whistle blowin' from the west down to the east

It’s on its way. The goodenoughcaring special (aka goodenoughcaring Journal 18) is approaching your station, and  if you look  up the rail track you can just about see her coming round the bend you can  just begin to the see the passengers and their paraphernalia.

Elaine Arnold writes about separation, loss, attachment and reunion issues, Denise Carroll and Mark Smith consider recent research about residential care workers and mental health professionals working together, as ever Cynthia Cross talks sense, this time about adult defensiveness ,   Alex Russon reflects on his volunteer work with David, a man with  addictions problems and suggests the childhood events which may have led to them, Maurice Fenton writes about the feelings stirred while writing his new book, John Stein challenges us to think again about the positives of points systems,  Justin Frost reviews Ken Loach’s classic 1971 film Family Life, Patrick Tomlinson reflects on aspects of empathy, John Whitwell answers the question,”Why a therapeutic community?”, Nigel Wilson ponders upon the statement of purpose of children’s home and Charles Sharpe reviews Maurice Fenton’s new  book Social Care and Child Welfare in Ireland .   Of course we  may still pick up a few freight hoppers on the way.

See you at the station,  high noon December 15th, 2016. Any day now any way now , we shall be released.

This news and opinion item for was first posted on the home page of the goodenoughcaring website on December 12th, 2015

Bombing Syria : a matter of conscience

There can be little doubt that more innocent members of Syrian families will be injured, maimed and killed if tomorrow evening, December 2nd, 2015, the United Kingdom parliament votes to extend the RAF’s role in the middle-east by allowing it to join with other countries to bomb  ISIL strongholds in Syria. Unfortunately ordinary families, who play no active part in the violence going on there, live in these places. Though there are noble exceptions, we seldom read of, listen to, or view the suffering and loss of these unfortunate people. Their fate does not seem to be an issue which overly troubles our media.

Our reaction to the terrible events in Paris on the night of  November 13th, 2015, lets us know how  unbearable we find the slaughter of innocents.  This may help us begin to imagine the horror Syrians living in their country and those who have fled it  have experienced and are still experiencing.  Since the start of the civil war 250,000 Syrian citizens have died as a consequence of military/terrorist action. Further British intervention will add to those deaths.

The expansion and escalation of military action may or may not  be what people of the United Kingdom want, but we are left to ponder what the worth of a girl’s, a boy’s, a woman’s and a man’s life is. Surely this is the issue Members of Parliament should be weighing up when tomorrow they examine their consciences.

This entry was posted on the goodenoughcaring.com home page on December 1, 2015

Is this still the fate of our children ? a view from 1960

“There is a great amount of good fellowship and love in humanity, and it is my firm belief that new generations that have not been warped in babyhood will live at peace with each other- that is, if the haters of today do not destroy the world before these new generations have time to take control.

The fight is an unequal one, for the haters control education, religion, the law, the armies, and the vile prisons. Only a handful of educators strive to allow the good in all children to grow in freedom. The vast majority of children are being moulded by anti-life supporters with their hateful system of punishments.”

A.S. Neill

Reference :  Neill, A. S. (1960). Summerhill: A radical approach to child rearing. New York: Hart Pub. Co.

This opinion item was first posted on the home page of  goodenoughcaring.com  website on 29th October, 2015, where many more posts and articles may be found.

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