WE must face the startling fact that the child has a psychic
life of which the delicate manifestations pass unperceived
and of which the adult may inadvertently mar the pattern
or hinder the development.

The adult's environment is not a life-giving environment
for the child. Rather it is an accumulation of obstacles, lead-
ing him to a creation of defences, to deforming efforts at
adaptation, or else leaving him the victim of suggestion. It
is the outward aspect he thus presents that has been consid-
ered in the study of child psychology; it is from this that his
characteristics have been defined, as a basis for education.
Child psychology is thus something that must be radically,
revised. As we have seen, behind every surprising response
on the part of a child, lies an enigma to be deciphered; every
form of naughtiness is the outward expression of some deep-
seated cause, which cannot be interpreted as the superficial,
defensive clash with an unsuitable environment, but as ex-
pressing a higher, essential characteristic seeking manifesta-
tion. It is as though a storm were hindering the child's soul
from coming forth from its secret hiding place, to show itself
in the outer world.

It is plain that all the incidents that mask the hidden soul
in its continual endeavours to actualise its life, all the fits of
temper, struggles, deviations, give no idea of a personality.
They are merely a sum of characteristics. But there must be

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