Psychiatry is probably the last of the medical sciences to join the family of preventive medicine. Its arrival has been somewhat tardy, but its place in this group is becoming more secure and more important as time goes on and as the ramifications of this field become more and more evident. It is true that in the past psychiatry has had a somewhat insecure place in medical thinking. I was reminded of this just the other day when an intelligent person asked me if I ever intended to go back to the practice of medicine. Be that as it may, it is certain that the understanding and control of the variety of factors which can and do lead to behavior and mental deviations in the child must form the foundation for stemming the flood of human beings which is flowing into the hospitals for mental diseases and for whose care