A Concept of the “Ideal” Therapeutic Relationship in Classes for Emotionally Disturbed Children
tionally disturbed children about which educators have generally agreed is the need for positive teacher-pupil rapport. The number of articles related to this factor and the number of references in which such concern appears are legion. Devereux (1956) has formulated teacher-pupil relationships which are based on psychoanalytic conceptualizations of teaching emotionally disturbed children. He specifies, among other things, the realization of teacher behavior directed toward immediate pupil achievement as a basic condition in the initial o r unlearning phase of “therapeutic education.” Berkowitz and Rothman (1960), consider “need-acceptance” (the view that a child’s behavior must be totally accepted by his teacher as being needed by the child for sustaining himself in the environment in which he finds himself); as being an essential state in the development of a conUniversity of Minnesota flict-free classroom milieu. Such a classroom environment, established early, reportedly decreases the potential for hostile teacher perceptions and allows the child to derive greater benefit from the teacher’s instructional talents. Similarly, Morse (1964), and others (,Liss 1955, Hirschberg 1953), maintain that although the teacher’s relationship with her disturbed pupils is not necessarily the prototype of the psychotherapist’s relationship with his client, it contains many of the same components. What is more, it has frequently been possible to demonstrate that the perceptions held by teachers in regard to teacher-pupil relationships yield a significant predictive accuracy for describing teacher behavior in the areas of classroom management, control, and instruction. Flanders (1965) offers some support for this position. On the A CONCEPT OF THE “IDEAL” THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP IN CLASSES FOR EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED CHILDREN :RANK 8. WILDERSON, JR., Ph.D.