Description
This article looks at the phenomenon of school refusal with a particular emphasis on cases where separation anxiety proves to be a feature either present in the child or projected from another family member and relocated in the child or young person. Classification is discussed and research quoted which indicates the different factors involved in the symptom. School refusal is here conceptualised within a psycho-dynamic framework with particular reference to attachment theory and to the importance of family dynamics. The author concludes that underlying factors to do with seperation difficulties emerge at times of crisis or change, specifically those to do with changes of school, and that in most cases the symptom of refusal has been building up over years because of earlier failures to achieve adequate separation.
