In psychology, no man knows very much. The inner forces of
human life are still largely hidden from us.

Since Freud's genius made it alive, psychology has zone far;
but it is still a new science, mapping out the coast of an un-
known continent. Fifty years hence, psychologists will very
likely smile at our ignorance of today.

Since I left education and took up child psychology, I have
had all sorts of children to deal with--incendiaries, thieves, liars,
bed-wetters, and bad-tempered children. Years of intensive
work in child training has convinced me that I know compara-
tively little of the forces that motivate life. I am convinced, how-
ever, that parents who have had to deal with only their own chil-
dren know much less than I do.

It is because I believe that a difficult child is nearly always
made difficult by wrong treatment at home that I dare address
parents.

What is the province of psychology? I suggest the word cur-
ing. But what kind of curing? I do not want to be cured of my
habit of choosing the colors orange and black; nor do I want to
be cured of smoking; nor of my liking for a bottle of beer. No
teacher has the right to cure a child of making noises on a drum.
The only curing that should be practiced is the curing of unhap-
piness.

The difficult child is the child who is unhappy. He is at war
with himself; and in consequence, he is at war with the world.

The difficult adult is in the same boat. No happy man ever
disturbed a meeting, or preached a war, or lynched a Negro. No
happy woman ever nagged her husband or her children. No

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