From talking cure to play- and group-therapy: outpatient mental health care for children in the Netherlands c. 1945–70

Abstract

After World War II in the Netherlands, outpatient mental health care for children expanded greatly. The number of Child Guidance Clinics grew, and university child-psychiatric clinics and Youth Psychiatric Services were newly established. The leading diagnostic and treatment ideology was mainly Freudian and focused on psychotherapy. During the 1960s the Child Guidance Clinics were outstripped by the more innovative university clinics that introduced new kinds of treatment, such as play- and group-therapy. This ended the hegemony of psychiatrists, as child psychologists and psychiatric social workers replaced them as therapists. At the same time, psychologists of the two denominational university Paedological Institutes took the lead in the scientific study of children’s more serious psychopathology and the development of play-therapy and remedial teaching methods.