Abstract

What happens to deprived children when they grow up? The authors tried to answer this question by initially selecting 34 subjects clearly identified as suffering a deprivation syndrome in their youth. Following theoretical considerations, the authors formulated hypotheses which they attempted to verify by comparing the nine adult subjects available who had suffered deprivation during their youth with whom they were able to establish contact with nine others diagnosed as neurotic (the control group).

The authors predicted that the deprived subjects would present more disability as adults than the neurotic ones. They were predicted to be more inclined towards delinquency and depression. It was hypothesized that they would not drift into psychosis, psychosomatic illness or become “young chronics”. We did not expect that they would move very much on the social scale.

The authors seized the opportunity to learn more about the satisfaction with the psychiatric interventions experienced during their youth.

In this study, the authors used a questionnaire and four scales of the MMPI to compare the two groups. The deprived subjects demonstrated more maladaptation with a strong tendency towards delinquency and possibly depression. They were not mobile on the social scale, and did not drift into psychosomatic illnesses or become “young chronics” but some psychosis was observed among them.

In the final discussion, the authors discuss the limitations of the study due to the size of the sample and problems of the methodology, along with ways that this could be strengthened in order to more successfully answer some of the questions raised.