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Individual Practice
BOARDING SCHOOL SYNDROME: BROKEN ATTACHMENTS A
HIDDEN TRAUMA
Joy Schaverien
abstract The aim of this paper is to identify a cluster of symptoms and behaviours,
which I am proposing be classified as ‘Boarding School Syndrome’. These patterns are
observable in many of the adult patients, with a history of early boarding, who come to
psychotherapy. Children sent away to school at an early age suffer the sudden and often
irrevocable loss of their primary attachments; for many this constitutes a significant
trauma. Bullying and sexual abuse, by staff or other children, may follow and so new
attachment figures may become unsafe. In order to adapt to the system, a defensive and
protective encapsulation of the self may be acquired; the true identity of the person then
remains hidden. This pattern distorts intimate relationships and may continue into adult
life. The significance of this may go unnoticed in psychotherapy. It is proposed that one
reason for this may be that the transference and, especially the breaks in psychotherapy,
replay, for the patient,the childhood experience between school and home.Observations
from clinical practice are substantiated by published testimonies, including those from
established psychoanalysts who were themselves early boarders.bjp_1229138..155
Key words: attachment, boarding school syndrome, child development, trauma, loss,
prep schools, public schools, psychotherapy, transference
Introduction
Tom was 6 years old when he arrived in a preparatory boarding school. He was
taken there by his parents and his little sister. This was exciting; a very grown-up
event for which there had been much preparation. It was confusing because there
were teachers and other boys milling around. His parents were with him, and then
he suddenly realized that they, and his sister, were back in their car. Uncompre-
hending, he saw the wheels of the car turning and he realized with horror that they
were driving away.The bottom fell out of his world. Now he realized what it meant
to be left at school. He felt alone in the world; deserted by his family.
‘Tom’ is now a man but, in psychotherapy, he recalls this moment as if it were
yesterday. We will return to Tom’s story later.
This article1,2 is an analysis of some of the enduring psychological effects of
boarding schools on those, like Tom, who attended them. Whilst boarding might
be considered to be a privilege, early boarding can cause profound develop-
mental damage. The wisdom of the time-honoured tradition of the British
JOY SCHAVERIEN PhD is a Jungian analyst and supervisor in private practice in the
East Midlands. She is a Professional Member of the Society of Analytical Psychology
(London), a Training Therapist and Supervisor for the British Association of Psycho-
therapists (Jungian Section) and Visiting Professor at the Northern Programme for Art
Psychotherapy, Leeds Metropolitan University. She teaches and supervises internation-
ally and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Analytical Psychology. Among her
many publications she is author of: The Revealing Image (Jessica Kingsley, 1992), Desire
and the Female Therapist (Routledge, 1995), The Dying Patient in Psychotherapy (Pal-
grave Macmillan, 2002) and editor of Gender Countertransference and the Erotic Trans-
ference (Routledge, 2006). She conducts Continuing Professional Development training
for psychotherapists working with ex-boarders. Address for correspondence: 5 The
Square, South Luffenham, Rutland LE15 8NS. [joyschaverien@aol.com]
138
© The author
British Journal of Psychotherapy © 2011 BAP and Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600
Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Establishment, of sending very young children away from home to boarding
schools, is therefore questioned. The psychological impact of this socially con-
doned, early rupture with home has a lasting influence on attachment patterns.
In normal development the ‘good enough’3family adapts with the child as he
or she grows. For the child in boarding school this process is reversed; the child
has to adapt to an inflexible system. The consequence is a form of psychological
splitting in which the child becomes apparently self-sufficient. This armouring,
initially acquired to save the vulnerable child from further insults to its
autonomy, may result in a lasting cluster of symptoms and behaviours which I am
identifying as ‘Boarding School Syndrome’. These patterns are observable in
many adult psychotherapy patients with a history of early boarding.
I did not myself attend a boarding school; my interest developed from obser-
vations from clinical practice. In my private practice, like many of my col-
leagues, I repeatedly witness the blight this experience has cast on the lives of
many of the adults who come for psychotherapy.These adults are from different
generations; some were boarders in the 1950s, others in all the decades to the
1990s, and sometimes I see a current boarder.
In previous publications on this topic I have explored clinical issues relating
to men who have boarded (Schaverien, 2002, 2004). Traditionally children are
sent to prep schools at 6 or 8 years old but it is not unusual to meet those who
went as young as 4 or 5. Whilst, historically, the majority of early boarders were
boys, a significant number of girls were also sent away early. Therefore this
paper includes the experiences of women. Through my clinical practice I have
come to realize that a number of people from apparently privileged back-
grounds were, in effect, ‘looked after children’.The term ‘looked after’ here has
a double meaning. Children whose families break down are sometimes taken
into foster care; in the social care system in Britain,these are called ‘looked after
children’. Such children are often from economically deprived backgrounds and
there is little alternative to this intervention. The initial impression would be
that there is little comparison with the child from an affluent home. However, a
child living in boarding school is also a ‘looked after’ child.They spend many of
their formative years in institutional care and are, in effect, fostered with strang-
ers. The parents of children in the social care system are often reluctant to let
their children go (this is evident from the much publicized custody battles in the
press, as well as observations from clinical practice). The boarders’ parents
choose this form of care for their child and pay a great deal of money for it. In
both situations the child experiences loss of attachment figures and the distress
of being ‘looked after’ by strangers.
When boarding schools are discussed the parents’ and teachers’ voices are
often heard but not the children’s. For many boarders it is only as adults that
they can begin to recognize and then articulate their experience and, for some,
the first time they do so is when they engage in psychotherapy. The purpose of
this paper is to address the impact of early boarding in the light of develop-
mental theory and to consider why the depth of this trauma may, at times, pass
unnoticed in psychotherapy. My wider project is to differentiate the psycholo-
gical impact of boarding on children at different developmental stages. This is
JOY SCHAVERIEN 139
beyond the scope of this article so the focus here is on early boarding and the
latency child. Latency is the developmental period, from the age of roughly 5 or
6, until the onset of puberty. A further planned publication will address puberty;
this is when gender differences become significant and the respective experi-
ences of girls and boys may become more marked.
Boarding School Syndrome
Syndrome is a term usually applied to a collection of symptoms related to
disease, but it is also a combination of opinions, emotions or behaviours. The
Oxford English Dictionary offers the following definitions: Syndrome: ‘1. a
group of medical symptoms which consistently occur together. 2. A set of
opinions or behaviour that is typical of a particular group of people.
Although Boarding School Syndrome is not a medical category, it is a cluster
of learned behaviours and discontents that follow growing up in a boarding
school. The need for theory leads me to seek such a definition but it is not my
intention to pathologize all who attended boarding schools. However, people
who present for psychotherapy are often those for whom boarding school was
an unhappy, if not a traumatic ordeal. It would be a misunderstanding to limit
any one person to specific symptoms, as its manifestation in each case is differ-
ent; it is the pattern that is discernable. The aim is to alert practitioners to
common, identifiable elements in the psyche of those for whom early boarding
ruptured their primary attachments and who had to adapt to growing up in an
inflexible system. The pattern may replay in a number of subtle ways, including
the re-enactment, in the transference, of the boarding school/parent dynamic.
Boarding school is rarely the presenting problem as the traumatic nature of this
early experience frequently remains unconscious.The ex-boarder might present
with a generalized sense of depression – a history of broken relationships,
marital or work related problems.They may only gradually become aware that
aspects of their distress originate in the losses and broken attachments of their
early childhood.
The cluster of learned behaviours and discontents that result in what I am
calling Boarding School Syndrome revolve around problems with intimacy.
Whilst appearing socially confident, the ex-boarder may find intimate engage-
ment threatening.This is a pattern well known in couples’ psychotherapy where
one partner, often the man, attended boarding school and is unable to talk
about his feelings. The person may make deeply dependent relationships and
then suddenly emotionally or, actually, abandon the loved person (Schaverien,
2002). This cutting off from emotional need can be experienced by the partner
as a violent attack or abrupt rejection.This often replays in the transference and
may lead to the sudden termination of analysis when the rage associated with
dependency begins to surface (Schaverien, 1997).
The data on which this article is based is drawn from observations from
clinical practice. Since Freud’s early findings, case studies have been the evi-
dence on which much psychotherapy research is based (McLeod, 1994, p. 103;
Roth & Fonagy, 1996, p. 49). In that tradition I am drawing on more than 20
years of witnessing these patterns in numerous clients who have attended
140 BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY (2011) 27(2)
boarding schools. I have also worked with the siblings, usually girls, who stayed
at home whilst their brothers went away to school; the effects on sibling
relationships are often profoundly disruptive. These observations are substan-
tiated by a wealth of data accumulated by the psychotherapist, Nick Duffell.
Over the last 20 years Duffell has conducted workshops for those he calls
‘boarding school survivors’. He has identified many common patterns in adults
with a history of early boarding (Duffell, 2000).4
Traumatic Losses
Early boarding is a traumatic event in the life of many young children and its
psychological impact affects the core of the personality. The sudden loss of
attachment figures (parents, siblings, pets and toys) causes the child to protect
itself. For the first time in their life the child may be in a situation where there
is no intimate contact; no love. Even when not mistreated, being left in the care
of strangers is traumatic. There are no words to adequately express the feeling
state and so a shell is formed to protect the vulnerable self from emotion that
cannot be processed. Whilst appearing to conform to the system, a form of
unconscious splitting is acquired as a means of keeping the true self hidden.
Duffell has identified this as ‘the strategic survival personality’ (Duffell, 2000, p.
10). The child then makes no emotional demands but also no longer recognizes
the need for intimacy. The self begins to become inaccessible; ‘Boarding School
Syndrome’ develops. This may continue as an unconscious pattern into adult
life. Psychological splitting is a well-known reaction to trauma (Fonagy, 1991;
Kalsched, 1996; Wilkinson, 2006, 2010). In Boarding School Syndrome the
memory of the losses and the associated rage are repressed and only surface
later, very often within a marriage or subsequently in psychotherapy.
The initial loss is compounded by its repetition. As the pattern of term time,
at school, and of holidays, at home, becomes established the child is unable to
settle in either place. For those whose parents live abroad the child is effectively
homeless. For others, during the holidays, there is the return home and school
can be temporarily forgotten; but all too soon the packing starts again. Even as
adults many ex-boarders find packing very difficult and it may come as a
revelation to make the link with this childhood memory. This pattern is inevi-
tably replayed in psychotherapy because the regular breaks evoke a similar
pattern of attachment followed by absence.The transference around breaks is a
time for particular vigilance (Schaverien, 1997, 2002, 2004).
Developmental Perspectives
Disrupted early attachments may permanently affect the ex-boarder’s invest-
ment in intimate relationships.The loss of home and family,alongside the social
conditioning of school routines,impinge on the relationship between psyche and
soma. Many report the longing for their mother and,in her absence,especially in
all boys’ schools,the need for a female/mother figure.Temporary respite could be
found in being ill for a few days and sent to the sanatorium where matron
presided. Homesickness is therefore an appropriate term.The child who misses
home becomes physically sick.This pattern was noted by Patrick Kaye (2005) in
JOY SCHAVERIEN 141
his role as a GP working for 18 years in a major public school. Children presented
with various ailments which he established were attributable to homesickness.
There is increasing evidence to demonstrate that the bond with the primary
caretaker influences the baby’s physical as well as psychological well-being
(Gerhardt, 2004; Lanius, Vermetten & Pain, 2010). Bodily functions of the
growing child, as well as the baby, are managed by the mother,or primary carer.
The too early loss of this intimate connection may distort the development of
relatedness and the ability to move confidently into the world at the appropriate
time. Moreover, a child who is perpetually vigilant has little space for symbolic
play. In boarding school there is little time for reverie and the life of the
imagination may therefore suffer.
Bowlby was an important and, for a time, a lone voice in emphasizing the
importance of attachment in early life (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980). However,
there is now much published research into the importance of the reciprocity of
the infant and its environment (Lewin & Trevarthen, 2000; Stern, 1985, 1988;
Trevarthen, 2009).Applying systems theory,Beebe and Lachmann (2002) argue
that the attachment between a baby and its mother is a bi-directional system;
each plays a part in influencing the other.Their approach in psychotherapy with
adult patients is informed by this: ‘Particularly at the non-verbal level, mother
and infant, as well as analyst and patient, participate in a moment-by-moment
coordination of the rhythms of behaviour’ (Beebe & Lachmann, 2002, p. 25).
Their infant research leads them to argue for mutual influence, rather than
separation–differentiation, as the prime tasks of analysis. This is relevant for
considering the approach to the treatment of ex-boarders as, with them,
working with attachment in the analytic present is essential.
Michael Fordham’s work is pertinent to the effects of early boarding. Like
Beebe and Lachmann his theoretical formulations were founded on infant
observation and are applicable to the latency child, as well as to adults in analysis.
Fordham developed Jung’s concept of the self through infant observation,
realizing that there is a nascent self present from the beginning of life. He
proposed the terminology ‘integration and de-integration’ (Fordham, 1967; 1985,
pp. 50–63) for his observation that the baby was already: ‘integrated – a person
distinct from his mother’ (Fordham, 1985, p. 50). He noted that, in the waking
state, the baby de-integrates; that is, opens out, complains if uncomfortable,
smiles, feeds and so evokes a response from the maternal environment. When
sufficient stimulation has been obtained, the baby withdraws and returns to rest,
reverie or sleep; integrating into the self. If the mother is depressed, or otherwise
unavailable, the baby will adapt, making fewer demands,but, if all goes well, the
infant gradually develops a sense that he can trust the environment. This is the
foundation of the capacity for reverie and imagination.
The baby, and later the child, is an active participant in its emotional growth,
mirrored through relationships that continue from infancy and into latency. This
is the point; if the latency child is sent away to school before he or she is ready to
leave home, psychological development is likely to be distorted. The child in a
boarding school is bereft because his or her primary attachments can longer be
relied upon; the environment has become unsafe. Later problems arise because,
142 BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY (2011) 27(2)
as time passes, the self remains unknown. Therefore, whilst apparently profes-
sionally and socially successful, the ex-boarder is troubled without understand-
ing why.
In a family, influence is reciprocal; its members change in response to the
needs of the growing child. Integration and de-integration is therefore a process
that embraces the wider environment. At boarding school this is reversed; the
child has to conform to survive. Inflexibility is threaded throughout school life;
lack of privacy extends to eating and sleeping, which take place en masse and at
times that suit the institution. At night, lights are put out at a designated time,
irrespective of what the child is doing. In some schools, in the past, lavatories
had no doors and showers were taken communally. The tradition of fagging, in
boys’ public schools, meant that junior boys were compelled to be available as
servants for the older boys – which condoned bullying as a privilege of age.5A
child, in a strange institution, where the rules are unknown, is tense and on
guard.There is little opportunity for reverie or integration, and de-integration is
to the institution. Therefore, whilst independent and intellectual thought are
encouraged, emotional autonomy is not fostered.
Learning to Conform
There is little published research or psychoanalytic literature about the endur-
ing psychological effects of boarding school, apart from Duffell (2000) and
Schaverien (2002, 2004). Several personal accounts have been published in the
journal Attachment, and one by Simon Partridge (2007) was followed by a
theoretical discussion by Annie Power (2007). However, sociological research
was conducted in the 1960s by Royston Lambert (1968) and John Wakeford
(1969). Vyvyen Brendon (2009), a historian, has traced the history of prep
schools across two centuries through the written testimonies of children. There
is not space here to do justice to these texts but it is important to acknowledge
them. In each, the approach is even-handed and the psychological damage of
the system is implicit. It is my project to make it explicit.
Two documentary TV films reveal the psychological suffering of children who
board. In 1994 Colin Luke (The Making of Them) filmed 8 year-old boys during
their first term in preparatory school. The viewer observes the psychological
conflict taking place in the mind of each child who, ignoring his intuitive feel-
ings,speaks words he has been told (i.e. that school is good for him).It is evident
that their emotional experience contradicts the explanations given by their
parents and teachers. The beginning of acculturation is evident in the psycho-
logical gymnastics that the child performs in order to believe what he has been
told. This film, like the books, witnesses the children our patients once were. It
demonstrates the source of the problems which sometimes emerge in psycho-
therapy. In Chosen (Channel 4, November 2008) four men, in their 40s, talked
about the sexual abuse to which they were each, individually, subjected by
masters to whose care they were entrusted, in the same school. Their lasting
sense of injustice, anger and injury is evident; psyche and soma remain pro-
foundly affected. All admit that they could not have disclosed the abuse, nor
made the film, whilst their parents were alive.This is the tragedy of exposure to
JOY SCHAVERIEN 143
such maltreatment in an institution in which the parents have placed their trust;
it is impossible (except in very rare cases) for the child to tell the parent. The
child is ashamed, feeling culpable for the humiliating experiences to which they
were subjected, and this cannot be articulated, even many years later. Boarding
School Syndrome is thus established; the true self remains hidden and the child
is unknown to the parents and so is, in effect, lost.
These films give weight to the importance of being alert to this form of
psychological suffering in children, as well as in adults, who seek psychotherapy.
Although boarding schools are claimed to have improved, many of the same
problems including, in some cases, extreme bullying, physical assault and sexual
abuse, continue in the so-called ‘best schools’.6Often these cases are only
known about by the few people involved and do not reach the public arena.
Psychotherapists may have privileged access to this information.
The First Days at Prep School: The Threshold
The emotional impact of the first days in prep school is often repressed. The
memory may return in psychotherapy, as it did with Tom, described earlier. The
awe with which a small child approaches such a socially valorized institution
may be encapsulated in the image of a formidable entrance (described by
Paech, 2009).This is often followed by recalling a first moment of realization; of
perceived parental betrayal. Instead of the special place that has been promised,
what looms ahead is exile. The loss is so total and the child so unformed that
there are no words adequate to convey the feelings. It is only as adults that
words can be found to describe this moment of realization. This moment is
vividly conveyed by Roald Dahl (1984, p. 79) and Andrew Motion (2006, pp.
93–101). Partridge describes ‘the rising tide of feeling’ as he relived this, ‘the
threshold’ in one of Duffell’s workshops. He became aware that his parents, his
sister and ‘the familiarity of our farm-life were about to vanish as I crossed,
irrevocably, into the domain of my prep school in 1955’ (Partridge, 2007, p. 310).
This is a man remembering the experience of his 8 year-old self 50 years after
the event. This is a familiar story; as psychotherapy begins memories of such
events flood back into consciousness. In order to survive the pain of this
moment of loss many shut down, emotionally; this is the genesis of Boarding
School Syndrome.
The Unprotected Child: Philippa’s Story
The loss and bewilderment are compounded by exposure to danger. In order to
convey this, I will give instances of the first days at prep school remembered by
two of my psychotherapy clients.The first is ‘Philippa’; the second is ‘Tom’ with
whose first day at school the article began. Their stories are very different but
each reveals the subtle ways in which the innate capacity, in the young child,for
trust may be eroded.
There are those for whom the threshold is not such an extreme experience.
For some children there is an excited anticipation of joining the world of older
siblings. Very often the imagined thrill is quickly deflated as the realization of
the endless stretch of time ahead, before there is contact with family, dawns.
Philippa, at first, talked about her school days with humour. She seemed
144 BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY (2011) 27(2)
generally to have had a good time at school and she had made lifelong friend-
ships. At 50 Philippa was married with three children, who were nearly grown
up. The youngest of four sisters, she was impatient to join her older sisters at
school; she had been lonely at home without them.She was well prepared as she
knew the school from visiting her sisters. The first day she was excited and
remembers arriving and seeing all the other little girls crying. She was 9 and she
did not understand why they were crying. This is unusual in that the transition
from home to school was apparently gradual. Philippa had always considered
that school had been fun and she had not suffered bullying. That was until she
started to remember an initiation to which she was subjected:
As she talked, she realized that she had not previously remembered the first year
dormitory, which she shared with 10 other girls. She mentioned, in an off-hand way,
an ‘initiation’ to which she was subjected in that dormitory:she was stripped naked
and hit with slippers by the other girls.
Recounted in this way it was quickly told. There was no emotion and Philippa
would have left the story at that if I had not asked her to pause and think about
what she had just said. As she thought about her 9 year-old self she began to
remember how frightening this incident had been. Thinking about her own
children, and about how small they were at that age, helped her to have
empathy for the child she had been. Her children had attended day schools and
she had never considered sending them away; she now began to appreciate why.
She recognized that she had completely blocked the memory of that first-year
dormitory, remembering instead, her second-year dormitory. This had been
much smaller and shared with just two girls whom she liked. Moreover,she was
already used to living at school by then.
This is what happens; acceptable words such as ‘initiation’ are attributed to
behaviours which would otherwise be deemed completely unacceptable; a new
script is written in which these behaviours are condoned. The law of the mass is
accepted and a blind eye turned to it by staff.This child was exposed to the abuse
of her peers.This was followed now by another memory; again of an ‘initiation’:
Philippa was encouraged to climb a tree and then was tied up in it. The other girls
were jeering and laughing at her. She did not understand why.
These incidents were bullying but dignified with a name that made them part
of a social norm. To complain about such abuse is to risk the scorn of the group
and therefore the potential for increased bullying. If it is endured,with apparent
good humour, the person is then considered a‘good sport’ and accepted as one of
the group: an‘initiate’.This is how Philippa had coped and she had not admitted,
even to herself, the shock and humiliation of being treated in this way. Ignoring
the pain and shame is a common way of dealing with such incidents but it also has
the effect of subtly eroding the person’s attitude to themselves.The wounded and
vulnerable part of the self remains hidden, safely encapsulated,where its truth is
concealed from conscious awareness.This is a common and lasting effect of early
trauma (Kalsched, 1996; Wilkinson, 2010). Although glossed over, an incident
like this is often traumatic. It is made worse because there is no one to whom it
can be recounted so the child has to cope with it alone.
JOY SCHAVERIEN 145
Bullying occurs in day schools too.The difference is that, despite the upsetting
nature of such events, the child returns home in the evening and so there is a
refuge, a place away from the bully. Even if the child cannot speak of it most
parents notice and are concerned if the child is apparently upset. For the
boarder there is no respite and no one in whom to confide.The natural instinct
may be to tell but there is no one to listen. This may compound the sense of
having been abandoned and contribute to a devastating realization of being
alone in the world.
Philippa maintained a positive attitude to life and was generally successful.
She was good at sport and so she fitted in socially. She used humour and, as she
put it, being naughty, to deflect from her loneliness and from potential trouble
with her peers.
It was only now, as an adult, that she realized how her relationship to herself
had been affected; as, she put it, she spent nine years of her childhood in an
environment where she was looked after by adults who did not love her. This
encouraged the development of a stance where she seemed, apparently, emo-
tionally unaffected and self-sufficient. In common with many ex-boarders her
vulnerability was hidden, even from herself. This is typical of the way the
boarding school child comes to deal with such events: and it is how Boarding
School Syndrome becomes established.
Philippa’s first two analyses had lasted for a number of years but did
not address the painful aspects of boarding. It seems that the analysts had
been misled by the deflection of the boarding school persona, accepting the
superficial version of her school experience. The transference may have
replayed the way in which Philippa had glossed over the experience of school
with her parents. When she returned home for the vacations she did not
recount the incidents of bullying. She had learned to be independent and,
along with her older sisters, she gave her parents and herself, at the same time,
the happy version of events. Rather unsurprisingly this was replayed in the
transference in her first analyses. It was only when she sought a third analysis,
for apparently unrelated reasons, that her attention was drawn to the ways in
which she deflected from her own suffering. It was persistently pointed out
to her when her concern for others masked her own distress; eventually, as
she began to notice it, the pain associated with her memories of boarding
emerged.
For Philippa boarding had been anticipated as an adventure, and it was only
after arriving that the reality of its loneliness dawned. This indicates the
problem of the current trend to consider that the child is involved in the
decision to choose boarding over day school. Often children as young as 8 or 10
are shown the school by their parents and given the ‘choice’ to go there or to a
day school. However, for small children, until they are left alone in the school,
there can be no real understanding of what boarding means.
The Hidden Trauma
In professional papers and case discussions, boarding school is frequently men-
tioned in passing but, as stated earlier,there is little psychoanalytic theory about
146 BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY (2011) 27(2)
its lasting psychological implications. Moreover, the full traumatic impact of
early boarding sometimes remains hidden in psychotherapy.This is curious as in
my practice, as well as those of some of my colleagues, a high percentage of
people presenting for psychotherapy attended these schools.7It is possible that
analysts and psychotherapists take this damage for granted, as a sort of
by-product of a system of privilege in education, which is so familiar that it
hardly merits comment. The boarding school child, as we have already seen,
learns not to complain.
Whilst there is little psychoanalytic theory, the biographies and autobio-
graphies of well-respected psychoanalysts contribute to understanding of the
lasting effects through discussion of their own boarding school experience.
Wilfred Bion (1982),writing in the later years of his life, recounts the story of his
childhood with wonderful dry humour. He was brought to England,from India,
to boarding school at the age of 8 and his family returned to India. He traces the
rest of his childhood in this lonely and mysterious world. Bion has the gift of
being able to convey the bewilderment of a small boy growing up in a boarding
school. With acerbic wit he comments on the absurdity of the situation without
being explicitly critical. John Bowlby’s (1973) emphasis on the importance of
attachment in child development supports our discussion, and it is significant
that he was unambiguous in his repudiation of the tradition of sending children
under 13 away to boarding school. Bowlby is quoted by Holmes, as describing
it as ‘merely the traditional first step in the time-honoured barbarism required to
produce English gentlemen’ (Holmes, 1993, p. 17, italics mine). Bowlby, whose
own stay in boarding school was relatively short, was not happy boarding (Van
Dijken, 1998).
Patrick Casement came from a naval family with the tradition of sending
children to boarding school at an early age; he was sent at 8 (Casement, 2006).
This is common for those in the armed forces because boarding offers stability
when the parents have to move home frequently. Sadly it also distorts the child’s
developmental needs, as Casement makes clear. It was not until into his adult
life that he began to realize how profoundly his early experiences had affected
him. In a moving description of his attachment to the buildings of his public
school, he shows how, in the absence of family, places are substituted in the
imagination of the lonely child (Casement, 2006, p. 29). The attachment to
houses, rather than people, is a kind of desperate solution found by the child
whose capacity to love is distorted by the absence of human attachment figures
(Schaverien, 2002,pp. 32–8).Casement’s first psychotherapy did not address the
negative transference and therefore the depth of his early experiences of loss
(Casement, 2006, pp. 14–15).
There are many other cases where the depth of the pain associated with early
boarding has passed unnoticed in psychotherapy. It is rare that boarding school
is the presenting problem and the ex-boarder is a master of emotional disguise.
The acquired veneer of confidence may contribute to the fact that sometimes
the profound significance of this formative experience is missed in psycho-
therapy.Thus the reality of the lasting distress associated with boarding remains
a well-kept secret. Duffell expresses it thus:
JOY SCHAVERIEN 147
One thing which never seemed to come up in my therapy...wastheeffect that my
boarding school education had had on me.I sensed that it was one of the things that
I was running hardest from, but my psychotherapist never seemed to mention it. I
suspected it was either a quite unknown subject or, as I assumed, one not fit for
therapeutic enquiry. And I...wastooshytobring it up...thecritic who lived in
my head said I had not yet grown up properly or that I was whingeing on about
something which had actually been a privilege. (Duffell, 2000, p. 3)
Duffell blamed himself, fearing that there was something so profoundly wrong
with him that it would not be appropriate to raise it. In British society the
assumption that boarding school is a privilege is a cultural myth, with some
justification. It is partly because of the advantages in material circumstances
that the ex-boarder is embarrassed to complain. Duffell (2009, personal com-
munication) was aware that class played a part in this interaction. There are
many others whose psychotherapy did not address the extent of this early
trauma. Partridge (2007, p. 310) writes that ‘deeply disturbing issues’ relating to
his time at boarding school were not addressed in either of his long-term
Kleinian-orientated psychoanalyses.
These are not isolated cases; whilst its extent merits further inquiry this is not
uncommon. The published cases, mentioned above, were conducted by experi-
enced practitioners,registered with respected UKCP and BPC organizations. In
order to substantiate this I give details. Casement’s first analysis was conducted
at three times a week over seven years with a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. It
was not until his second psychoanalysis, this time conducted at five times a
week, that the deficit of the earlier therapy was made good and that he touched
the depth of his losses (Casement, 2009, personal communication). Duffell’s
psychotherapy took place once a week over nine years, with three different
psychotherapists, two humanistic and one analytic. He spent three years with
each but the significance of his boarding school experiences was not addressed
(Duffell, 2010, personal communication). Partridge’s first psychoanalysis was
conducted at five times a week over nine years and his second, also psycho-
analysis, at four times a week over five years. In each case his boarding school
trauma was not addressed (Partridge, 2010, personal communication). Philip-
pa’s first two analyses were conducted over 10 years: three years at three times
a week with a Jungian analyst, one year at once a week with a humanistic
psychotherapist, and then she returned to the first analyst for another three
years at once a week. It was not until she embarked on a third analysis, some
years later, that her positive presentation was challenged and she contacted the
trauma of her boarding school experience.
We have seen that the ex-boarder may expertly deflect from their suffering.
However, the analysts and psychotherapists in the cases concerned, as I have
indicated, were all well trained and were experienced.Therefore I would specu-
latively suggest that a failure to take up the boarding school experience may
have to do with a number of factors which might remain unconscious in the
therapeutic dyad. As mentioned above it is possible that class is a factor; but
what does this mean? One of the advantages of private boarding school edu-
cation is that it equips the ex-boarder with a confident presentation that
148 BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY (2011) 27(2)
commands respect; this is recognized in British society at a subliminal level. If
the psychotherapist was not private boarding school educated, it is possible that
an unconscious deference may get in the way of challenging the powerful
defence. If, on the other hand, the psychotherapist attended a boarding school
it is possible that there is an unconscious recognition; a shared subliminal
acceptance that it is not a problem. Clearly this is not always the case and many
psychotherapists are not deflected from the suffering involved. However, there
is enough evidence to indicate a need for further inquiry into why such highly
qualified people sometimes miss the depth of trauma that follows early board-
ing. It may be that this would lead to a different technical approach to working
with ex-boarders in psychotherapy.
Educational Advantage
Boarding is a legacy of British history that is regarded with incomprehension
in nations, such as Scandinavia, where sending children away from home to
school is practised only in exceptional circumstances. The educational advan-
tages offered by most of these schools are considerable but the benefits need
to be weighed against the long-term psychological damage brought about by
the losses involved. Whilst many achieve significant social status, as a result
of the educational advantages provided, there are casualties. The most
severely affected are barely able to hold down a job or maintain intimate
relationships.8For them being sent away from home may have been the final
straw in the face of other factors or personal sensitivities. These people were
unable to reap the rewards of the academic, social and sporting opportunities
provided.
As already stated, those we meet in psychotherapy are usually the ones who
struggled with boarding; however, others assert that boarding school was a
positive experience for them. Often further discussion leads to painful memor-
ies with them too but these are not immediately recalled and the balance of
positive experiences seems to outweigh the negative ones. Perhaps the differ-
ence lies in the age at which a person enters the school. Those who can take
advantage of the educational opportunities, provided by committed teachers in
academic studies, music or sport are often those who first went to school as
teenagers.A child at 13 is more mature, psychologically, and physically, than the
prep school child. At 16, some make an informed choice to complete their
education away from home. Even so, many older children endure distressing
episodes of loneliness, sexual abuse and bullying. It is now illegal to beat
children but in the past, when many of our clients boarded, beatings (often
sadistic) were ubiquitous; they were considered to be character forming. Age
was no bar to this maltreatment.
There are some for whom school is better than their home. In these cases
school is a sanctuary, offering relief from constant insecurity, neglect or abuse;
as one of my patients expressed it: ‘At school at least you knew where the
punishment was coming from.’ For this man, and others like him, boarding
school was preferable to home because it offered stability which his parents,
despite their material wealth, were unable to provide. Corporate identity and
JOY SCHAVERIEN 149
engaging in team games can give a real sense of belonging and of fair play and,
as in the case described by Meredith Owen (2007), may compensate for the loss
of the familiar environment.
The Unprotected Child: Tom’s Story
I return now to Tom whom we met on the threshold of his prep school at the
beginning of the article.Tom, a married man in his mid-30s, was referred by his
GP for psychotherapy. He knew something was wrong but he could not under-
stand what it was. He was clinically depressed but he did not want medication.
Until recently, he had had a number of jobs in different countries but he had
hated being employed. Now he was home and had set up his own small business.
He had recently married and his wife had identified his emotional isolation.
They slept in separate rooms, an arrangement which suited Tom. At boarding
school he had shared a dormitory and now, free of school, he could choose to
sleep in a space of his own; understandably his wife was unhappy about this
arrangement.
Tom, the elder of two children, was sent to prep school when he was 6. His
sister was born when he was 5 and after this his mother found his temper
tantrums impossible to manage so it was decided that school would be good for
him. It was a family tradition to send children to prep school, but usually at 8.
Tom had accepted his parents’ version of events – that he had been a difficult
child. He had felt rejected but concluded that this was because he was bad. He
was surprised when I suggested that he might have been jealous of his sister and
this could have been exacerbated by being sent away. Sometimes it is not
boarding school alone that has a negative impact, but the story the child is told
associated with it. For Tom it had seemed that school was a punishment; he was
banished for his badness.
This emerged in the early sessions but was passed over by him as unremark-
able.The content of the sessions then stayed in the present and there was much
about his work and home life. It was only when I asked him more about his
school that he began to recount the cruel incidents of bullying he had suffered
in his early days at school.This continued until he grew physically strong enough
to stop it. He dismissed it as merely the type of initiation to which boys were
subjected. However, as he became aware that I took these incidents very seri-
ously, he began to do so himself. Then, in the fourth session, he told me the
following story from his first days in prep school:
As already stated, Tom was six years old when he was taken by his parents to his
prep-school and left there in the care of strange adults.However, forTom it was not
the adults who mistreated him. One night, very soon after he arrived, an older boy
appeared to befriend him. He took him by the hand and said they were going for
a walk. InnocentlyTom was led out into the dark night, a long walk from the school,
and then the older boy told him he was going to kill him.Tom was terrified.The boy
told him that his parents were not there and no one would hear if he cried out.
Having duly frightened the child, he stopped; and then he told him he was only
joking and led him, still by the hand, back to the school. Tom was unable to tell
anyone what had happened.
150 BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY (2011) 27(2)
This story of innocence abused reveals the trusting nature of a small child in
the hands of someone only a year or two older.A casual witness might consider
that nothing very much had happened; there was no dramatic assault and no
physical damage. However, the psychological effects of this incident had lasted
30 years.Tom was in middle age and yet I was the first person he had ever told
of this experience. This highlights the problem; even if staff members are kind,
the child is exposed for many hours in the day and, even worse, in the night, to
the impulses of other children. These children are themselves very young and
may have little sense of the impact of their behaviours.Both these children were
unprotected – the perpetrator, as well as the victim, in the grip of terrifying
fantasies.The distinction between fantasy and reality, between symbolic thought
and action, was not yet formed in their minds.
The older boy was apparently a sadistic abuser but he was also a small boy
and he was out of control. He too was exposed because he could perpetrate an
act that, had they known, adults would have prevented. Hypothetically, we
might assume that he had been left in this school a year or two previously. He
would therefore recognize Tom’s insecurity. Taking charge of the smaller boy
might alleviate his own insecurity, proving that he was no longer the youngest.
It is possible that he regarded this to be a joke but it is likely to have had a more
sinister, if unconscious, psychological motive. By terrifying Tom, it is probable
that he was sadistically externalizing his own rage and fear; seeing them
reflected in another he could feel in control, and powerful. Then, rescuing the
younger boy, he could soothe himself and feel benign. One might speculate
whether he felt guilt; if so there would be no one to whom to confess and to
mediate his own rage and terrifying fantasies.
However, our concern is the lasting impact of his behaviour onTom.For Tom
the terrible thing had happened. He knew now how vulnerable he was and his
trust had been violently shattered. There were no words for what he had
experienced and no one to tell. In order to survive, in cases like this, a hidden
compartment in the self is acquired where such experiences are locked away.
This type of dissociation is a common response to trauma (Davies & Frawley,
1994; Wilkinson, 2006). This was a traumatic event in this child’s life; Tom had
learned that he could depend on no one. First his primary attachments had been
broken and, subsequently, he was offered the potential friendship of an older
boy, only to realize that he was at his mercy.
When he grew bigger Tom would intervene if another child was being bullied.
This attitude continued into his adult life; Tom looked after his loved ones and
was fiercely protective of them but he did not expect anyone to look after him.
We might understand this in the light of Boarding School Syndrome. The
boarder is trained in a similar way to an officer in the military; to look after his
men and to care for others before himself. Consciously, Tom was friendly, kind
and thoughtful but the unconscious opposite of this was that he was also
furiously angry. His fear of his own violence kept him isolated;he kept separate
to protect those he loved from the perceived danger of getting close to him.
This replayed in the transference. He was at first relieved to have someone in
whom to confide. Gradually he began to understand how he had always cut off
JOY SCHAVERIEN 151
from people who came emotionally close to him. Banished by his parents,
because of his rage, he continued to feel dangerous in relationships. In common
with other ex-boarders he had, in the past, cut off suddenly from jobs and from
girlfriends.This is a common form of self-harm in Boarding School Syndrome.
The person makes a deeply dependent relationship and then severs his emer-
ging tender feelings. Suddenly abandoning the loved object is an extreme form
of self-abuse. Simultaneously it unconsciously expresses rage towards the
present lover and those who abandoned him in the past.
As psychotherapy began to become important to him, Tom worried about
how he would manage when, eventually, it ended. With ex-boarders, the
breaks in psychotherapy apparently have little impact at first. The regular
pattern of school holidays, followed by the return to school, arms the
ex-boarder with a mechanism for coping with disrupted attachments; he is
expert at cutting off. This Tom did for the first two breaks, telling me that he
had been fine. However, after the third break, psychotherapy nearly came to
an abrupt end when he left a message, telling me that he now needed to stop
and work things out for himself. This is an occurrence that I have noted with
men in psychotherapy with female therapists (Schaverien, 1997) and, in terms
of working with Boarding School Syndrome, this is a common occurrence
(Schaverien, 2002, 2004). Tom could not bear dependency and so he reverted
to the previous method of dealing with attachments in his adult life; the
impulse was to leave.
It is likely that Tom experienced the feelings that were emerging in the
transference as intensely dangerous. The decision to leave was probably moti-
vated by an unconscious need to protect us both from his potential violence.
Steiner (1993) writes of the ‘patient who is dominated by feelings of resent-
ment and grievance’ and suggests that such patients use a form of ‘psychic
retreat which operates as a defence against anxiety and guilt’ (p. 74). Feelings
of ‘resentment and grievance’ threatened Tom’s previous self-image. His
defences were breaking down and he was forming an attachment to me. As
a result the sense of injustice and his previously unconscious wish for revenge
began to become live in the present. Steiner describes this type of emotional
turmoil: ‘These patients feel wronged but are unable to express their wish
for revenge actively by openly attacking the objects which have wronged
them’ (1993, p. 74). Some hold back for fear of retaliation but others are
inhibited because of the ‘fear that the revenge would be excessive’ (Steiner,
1993, p. 74).
Consciously Tom was a caring man but he was beginning to realize that he
was violently vengeful. His anger with his mother for abandoning him and his
sister, for replacing him, were becoming conscious and replaying in the trans-
ference. He may have experienced me as another woman whom he had to look
after; the fee often brings this to the fore. His impulse to leave was fuelled by
conflicted emotions – a desire to make me suffer,as he had, but also the fear that
he would wreak some terrible revenge. The ‘psychic retreat’ to which Steiner
refers is an emotional retreat but with the ex-boarder it can be enacted as a
concrete abandonment of the process. Tom returned to discuss his decision to
152 BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY (2011) 27(2)
terminate and eventually agreed to continue. Then the violence of his feelings
was expressed; he was terrified of what he might do to me. It became evident
that, no longer a victim, he was scared of his own power; now he could be the
sadistic abuser. For a while he could not distinguish between his violent fantas-
ies and acting on them; to imagine destruction was to have done it. It took a
while for this to become separated out and for him to realize that his hateful
fantasies were a form of attachment.
In the light of incidents, like the one to which Tom was subjected, the osten-
sible privilege of boarding might be viewed rather differently. It exposes the
child to the unpredictable and, sometimes, harmful actions of others.9This story
is far from unique and only one of many similarly damaging events that are
reported. The deep scars left on the psyche may affect the person’s ability to
love.It is therefore troubling that this suffering may be dismissed as insignificant
in comparison with the problems of material deprivation suffered by others.10
This ignorance of the extent of exposure of such children seems to disregard the
importance of emotional attachment.A child, of whatever social class, who feels
neither physically nor psychologically safe is always vigilant and so their devel-
opment may be adversely affected.
Boarding School Syndrome: In Conclusion
Boarding School Syndrome is a significant factor in the presentation of the
ex-boarder in psychotherapy. As psychotherapy develops it becomes clear that
the personality structure, acquired as a necessary protective shell at school, is
still active. The child who learned to adapt continues to have unmet emotional
needs that distort their development. These needs remain active in the adult.
The intimacy of the mother–child bond can never be recaptured but the yearn-
ing for it, which begins with homesickness at school, may unconsciously domin-
ate later life.
We have seen, through the stories of Philippa and Tom, how differently
boarding school affects different children. The home situation is a factor. For
Philippa the role models of her sisters, as well as their physical presence in the
school, mediated her experience. Even so she was helpless and subject to painful
‘initiation’ which might well be reframed as group bullying. For Tom school was
unfamiliar and the situation he was leaving at home, a little sister in his place,
contributed to his distress and feelings of being abandoned. The bullying to
which he was subjected was more sinister because of its one-to-one nature and
because of the initial friendship offered.
The painful experiences of boarding, for many, inhabit the shadowy realm of
split-off negative emotions. Secretly hidden they remain unconscious until the
person is emotionally compelled to explore it. The transference can be compli-
cated by the projected veneer of sophistication and confidence. This is the
barrier that has to be overcome with the ex-boarder in psychotherapy. This is
the reason there is a need for theoretical nomenclature such as ‘Boarding
School Syndrome’. Whilst further exploration is needed, and indeed planned,
this may provide the beginning of a specialist framework within which to
consider approaches to working with ex-boarders.
JOY SCHAVERIEN 153
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Dr Andrea Gilroy, Professor Helen Odell-Miller and Jane
Schaverien, all of whom read and commented on earlier drafts of this paper; to
‘Philippa’ and ‘Tom’ for permission to tell their stories; and to Patrick Casement,
Nick Duffell and Simon Partridge for permission to give details of their analyses.
Notes
1. An earlier version of this paper was given as a talk for the public programme of the
Society of Analytical Psychology in Oxford in March 2009.
2. This article offers preliminary thoughts – a book on this topic is in progress.
3. I mean this in the sense of Winnicott’s ‘good enough mother’ who, although good
enough, also, at times, fails the child. This is a necessary developmental process (Winni-
cott, 1971, p. 11).
4. A campaigning group Boarding Concern was formed as an outcome of these work-
shops. Available from: http://www.boardingconcern.org.uk/
5. Fagging was finally abolished in the 1990s.
6. My own observations,from clinical practice, are confirmed in a personal communica-
tion from James Foucar, one of the Directors and Founders of Boarding Concern, who
writes: ‘We...need to challenge the myth of “modern” boarding schools – my recent
research shows that little has changed especially in boarding prep schools.’ He quotes:
School Life – Pupils’ Views on Boarding (Department of Health, 1993); Good Practice in
Boarding Schools (Boarding Schools Association, 2001); Head to House: How to Run
Your House Effectively (John Catt Education Ltd, 2000).
7. Further research is planned to verify the actual percentages.
8. This is based on conversations with colleagues and observations from my own prac-
tice. The case described in Schaverien (2002) is one such example.
9. This is reminiscent of Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
10. In presenting papers at professional conferences on this topic I have met this
response on several occasions.
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Television Programmes
The Making of Them (BBC film made by Colin Luke and broadcast in 1994)
Chosen (Channel 4 broadcast in November 2008)
JOY SCHAVERIEN 155
... Previous studies on psychological effects of early separation of children from their parents or primary attachment figures have mainly focused on grief following loss of loved ones or parental divorce (13). Evidence of effects of early separation following admission to boarding schools at an early age is more limited, with a few studies having been done internationally (2,4,14). ...
... Grief at leaving home was an important theme that emerged from all the participants of this study. When children are sent away from home at an early age, they may suffer significant trauma due to sudden and often irrevocable loss of their primary attachments (14). In a home environment, families tend to adapt to the changes a child undergoes throughout development; but the reverse would happen in a boarding school, where the child has to adjust to a rigid system (14). ...
... When children are sent away from home at an early age, they may suffer significant trauma due to sudden and often irrevocable loss of their primary attachments (14). In a home environment, families tend to adapt to the changes a child undergoes throughout development; but the reverse would happen in a boarding school, where the child has to adjust to a rigid system (14). The resultant psychological adverse effects have been reported to cause a cluster of long lasting symptoms and behaviours, which has been called the Boarding School Syndrome (BSS) by Joy Schaverien, a Jungian analyst and a psychotherapist (14). ...
Article
Full-text available
Background The education system in Sri Lanka drives parents to seek popular schools in cities for their children, some of who are being boarded far away from their homes (1). Living away from home at a young age can cause grief and even depression. Children boarded at an early age may present with a cluster of symptoms later in life known as “Boarding School Syndrome” (BSS) (2). AimsThe aims of this study were to explore the psychological effects of being boarded in schools far away from home, in a sample of students referred to the psychiatry unit of Base Hospital Diyatalawa. Methods This was a qualitative study. Students who had been boarded in schools in four towns, who were referred to the psychiatry unit, and their parents, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and thematic analysis was done. ResultsSeven students were interviewed, aged between 11- 18 yrs with a mean age of 13.4 yrs. Several main themes were identified from the analysis; grief at leaving home, difficulty in transitioning to the new school environment, worry about effect on scholastic performance after boarding, crisis situations and cries for help, and the experience of emotional abuse. Several students also had features of depression. Conclusions The findings of this study suggest that separation from parents in childhood significantly increases the risk of negative psychological outcomes including depressive symptoms. This is in keeping with findings from similar previous studies. Psychiatrists should be aware of the possible negative impact of being separated from parents and boarded away from home, when assessing children and adolescents.
... A small number of empirical studies (e.g. Evans-Campbell et al. 2012;Partridge 2012) have sought to directly investigate the potential negative effects of boarding school on well-being and psychosocial functioning. However, none of these studies have specifically explored the lived experiences of ex-boarders in terms of the long-term effects on their sense of self and identity. ...
... Although there are some studies into the psychological effects of boarding school (Duffell 2000;Duffell and Bassett 2016;Partridge 2012;Schaverian 2011), research into this area is minimal. Such prior research has largely been intervention-based or auto-ethnological, predominantly qualitative and sometimes anecdotal. ...
Article
Full-text available
Boarding schools exist to provide education for children, but this involves the child leaving the family home and residing in an educational institution. Identity Process Theory suggests that such a change in circumstances can threaten the child’s identity, which triggers coping strategies and impacts on the individual’s self-concept during both childhood and adulthood. This study undertook an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with five adults who boarded as children. The focus was on exploring participants’ beliefs in terms of how the boarding experience affected their sense of self. Emerging themes relate to the (i) coping strategies used by participants during childhood, such as amnesia, compartmentalising, compliance and acceptance, and (ii) long-term effects of boarding on identity, self-concept and intimate relationships. Findings also highlight the interplay of factors such as privilege and social class, which were reported as motives for participants’ parents choosing boarding for their children. The study raises important questions about the long-term health impacts of sending children away to board.
... Much has been written about negative experiences at boarding school (e.g., Duffell, 2000Duffell, , 2012Partridge, 2007Partridge, , 2012Schaverien, 2004Schaverien, , 2011Standish, 2011). Schaverien (2011) identified a cluster of symptoms and behaviors she proposed be classified as ''boarding school syndrome'': patterns of trauma observable in many of her adult patients who had attended Martin et al. boarding school. ...
... For example, these have described the experiences of Indigenous youth during European colonization throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in a number of countries where Indigenous people were removed from families, often resulting in loss of relationships with family, loss of cultural identity, poor standard of education, and long-term mental health issues (Barton et al., 2005;Smith, 2010). Other research has investigated the effects of boarding from a young age (e.g., Duffell, 2000Duffell, , 2012Partridge, 2007Partridge, , 2012Schaverien, 2004Schaverien, , 2011Standish, 2011) or attending boarding schools run by religious organizations throughout the 20th century (e.g., Trimingham Jack, 2003). Only more recently in the 21st century have studies examined contemporary experiences of and factors affecting student transition to boarding school. ...
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Boarding school has been a feature of education systems for centuries. Minimal large-scale quantitative data have been collected to examine its association with important educational and other outcomes. The present study represents one of the largest studies into boarding school conducted to date. It investigates boarding school and students’ motivation, engagement, and psychological well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, interpersonal relationships)—controlling for sociodemographic, achievement, personality, and school covariates. The main sample comprised 5,276 high school students (28% boarding students; 72% day students) from 12 high schools in Australia. A subsample of 2,002 students (30% boarding students; 70% day students) had pretest data, enabling analyses of gains or declines in outcomes across the school year. Results indicated predominant parity between boarding and day students on most outcome factors, some modest positive results favoring boarding students, and no notable differences in gains or declines on outcomes between boarders and day students over the course of one academic year. Implications for researchers, the boarding sector, parents, and students are discussed.
... experiences (Duffell, 2000;Partridge, 2007Partridge, , 2012Schaverien, 2011;Standish, 2011). Schaverien (2011) coined two concepts to describe the influence of boarding school on the mental health of boarding children. ...
Thesis
Over the past half-century, China has witnessed the largest internal migration in history, with millions of predominantly rural workers moving to become part of the urban workforce. The hukou household registration system means that migrant workers experience various forms of disadvantage relative to those born in cities, in terms of access to housing and other social amenities; in addition, families are often separated for protracted periods by migration. In this thesis I analyse the effects of migration from three novel and under-researched perspectives. The first is about rural children’s experiences of boarding school. The mental health of children left behind by migration has generated a huge literature, but the role played by boarding schools has received little attention; existing evidence is mixed and does not take into account parental migration. Using data from the first wave of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS 2010), I investigate the relationship between boarding school and a range of child outcomes, controlling for both household and community characteristics. I find that boarding school is associated with poorer mental health for children; in addition, although boarding school is predominantly a rural rather than a "left-behind" phenomenon, left-behind status slightly modifies the influence of boarding on children’s academic performance and academic satisfaction. Secondly, I explore the emotional health of older people whose children have migrated for work. A small literature has documented negative effects on elders’ mental health, but it does not investigate the mechanisms that underpin this relationship. Using data from CFPS 2010, I introduce three new dimensions. I consider temporal factors, finding that elders’ mental health decreases the longer their children are away, but recovers after a certain length of time. I also distinguish between left-behind parents based on whether all or some of their adult children have migrated, finding that rural elders suffer less adverse impacts, and recover twice as quickly from the absence, when only some of their children have migrated. Finally, I investigate moderating effects, showing that providing (grand)childcare and receiving economic support from migrant children mitigate negative effects on mental health. Thirdly, I examine the extent to which migrant households have access to financial services provided by banks, insurance companies and other institutions, using data from the China Household Financial Studies (2013). Multilevel estimates reveal substantial differences in financial inclusion by hukou status, with significant modifying effects of city development. The findings shed light on the potential for market failures that deny access to financial services to groups of people, and suggest how policymakers could regulate the financial services market for better consumer protection, financial inclusion, and rural-urban integration. Results from all three empirical chapters suggest that internal migration and economic reform in China have not benefited rural citizens as intended. Rural children suffer significantly poorer mental health in boarding schools; elderly parents’ mental health is strongly impacted by their adult children’s migration, and migrants in urban areas – even those who have successfully converted to an urban hukou - experience impediments when attempting to integrate into urban life. Evidence from multiple perspectives of family life suggests a need for institutional changes leading to fairer and more equal outcomes for rural migrants and their families.
... The term lifestyle also reflects an individual's habits, attitudes, beliefs, and, essentially, the way the person is perceived by himself/herself and, at times, also how he/she is perceived by others. 2 Some researchers have reported that boarding school experiences result in many problems of which most prominent is an emotional disorder. 10 Health-promoting lifestyles are viewed as a multi-dimensional pattern of self-initiated actions and perceptions that serve to maintain or enhance the level of wellness, self-actualization, and fulfillment of the individual. Six domains of the HPLP-II tool includes individual nutrition, PA, SM, interpersonal relationship, psychological wellness, and HR. ...
... Addressing violence at boarding schools has mainly been done from a psychological perspective in terms of highlighting behavioral difficulties as the roots of violence (Pfeiffer and Pinquart, 2014) and/or the trauma that victims of violence suffer. The boarding school syndrome refers to the phenomenon of young children being separated from their parents and placed in an environment characterized by violence and insecurity, which can create long-term trauma (Partridge, 2007, 2012, Schaverien, 2011Standish, 2011). However, the multi-layered features of violence indicate that research on violence cannot simply be reduced to individual experience and behavior but also needs to take into account the intersecting web of social perceptions and norms (Epp and Watkinson, 1997;Kumashiro and Ngo, 2007). ...
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Drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the article highlights various conceptions of violence at a Swedish boarding school and is based on a critical discourse analysis of different educational and media documents. The investigation indicates that ambitions to protect children from violence need to overcome the dichotomy of private and public in order to protect children affected by violence in the borderland between the private and public spheres.
Book
There is now ample evidence from the preclinical and clinical fields that early life trauma has both dramatic and long-lasting effects on neurobiological systems and functions that are involved in different forms of psychopathology as well as on health in general. To date, a comprehensive review of the recent research on the effects of early and later life trauma is lacking. This book fills an obvious gap in academic and clinical literature by providing reviews which summarize and synthesize these findings. Topics considered and discussed include the possible biological and neuropsychological effects of trauma at different epochs and their effect on health. This book will be essential reading for psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental health professionals, social workers, pediatricians and specialists in child development.
Article
Successful treatment of the psychological effects of early life trauma requires attention not only to what happened to the survivor but also to what did not happen. Early life trauma involves prolonged, recurring abuse, which is generally coupled with neglect. The survivor must try to contend with the impact of the abuse, while lacking the developmental learning that comes from having had a secure attachment figure. The chapters in this part describe five approaches to treating the complex traumatic disorders that result from childhood abuse and neglect. At first glance, all approaches are specialized, using unique language to describe their theoretical frameworks and therapeutic techniques. Nevertheless, despite the specificity of each treatment model, the chapters share a number of common themes that are interpersonal and affect focused in nature. How does the therapist help to create a sense of safety, when it is paradoxically both a prerequisite and an anticipated outcome of successful treatment? What is the affective core of trauma-related pathology and how should this be addressed in treatment? How can therapist and patient together create a relational framework within which traumatic memories can be addressed? Safety. Childhood trauma disrupts the developmental trajectory of attachment. Not surprisingly, many chronically abused individuals develop disorganized and insecure attachment styles [1], which have been associated with the development of dissociative disorders as well as other psychiatric disorders in adulthood [2]. Disruption of safe attachment leaves the survivor feeling profoundly unsafe in the world.
Article
It is well known that infants as soon as they are born tend to use fist, fingers, thumbs in stimulation of the oral erotogenic zone, in satisfaction of the instincts at that zone, and also in quiet union. It is also well known that after a few months infants of either sex become fond of playing with dolls, and that most mothers allow their infants some special object and expect them to become, as it were, addicted to such objects. There is a relationship between these two sets of phenomena that are separated by a time interval, and a study of the development from the earlier into the later can be profitable, and can make use of important clinical material that has been somewhat neglected. Those who happen to be in close touch with mothers' interests and problems will be already aware of the very rich patterns ordinarily displayed by babies in their use of the first 'not-me' possession. These patterns, being displayed, can be subjected to direct observation. There is a wide variation to be found in a sequence of events that starts with the newborn infant's fist-in-mouth activities, and leads eventually on to an attachment to a teddy, a doll or soft toy, or to a hard toy. It is clear that something is important here other than oral excitement and satisfaction, although this may be the basis of everything else. Many other important things can be studied, and they include: 1. The nature of the object. 2. The infant's capacity to recognize the object as 'not-me'. 3. The place of the object – outside, inside, at the border. 4. The infant's capacity to create, think up, devise, originate, produce an object. 5. The initiation of an affectionate type of object-relationship.
Article
Therapeutic Counsellor and former boarder My attempt to address a collective misunderstanding about boarding, grown from the cultural normalisation of this privileged form of education, is based both on my work as therapist and personal experiences of boarding. Being transported from home to a place utterly strange, and left there, is a traumatic experience -of being rendered unsafe in an instant. The initial startle, unless activated into Fight or Flight (the instinctive physiological response to any situation that threatens safety,) turns into prolonged shock; this position of tension will last as long as it's needed, until deemed safe to release. Children away at school are forced to fend for themselves; whatever the help from peers and encouraging supervision from staff, the very process of adaptation that is so highly-regarded as character-building -having to be independent, reliable, tough, on the outside at least -carries a psychological price that can lead to life-long problems in adulthood, if not sooner. Since the mid-twentieth century, research has led to a greater appreciation of children's need for secure attachment to their central caretakers, more recently validated by neuro-scientific findings. Children who feel safe will naturally venture forth into the world with curiosity towards healthy independence, as and when they are ready; not, as some fear, remain 'tied to apron strings.' It is the children who are forced to become self-reliant ahead of their natural development who meet the world warily, and form a mistrustful, defended way of being in the world that sets up patterns which later on can severely undermine intimate relationships.