Reflections on the Past and Future‪.‬

On such occasions as retirement I suppose it's appropriate to trace the unique succession of events that brought one to this particular point in time. We're engaged at this moment because of our common interest in children whom many don't understand and often outright reject. Deep within us is some germinal basis for this attachment. Looking back, I realize that even as a youngster I was curious as to why people behaved this way or that. Much of human behavior, including my own, seemed illogical, incongruous, and unpredictable. Perhaps because of this fascination I was naturally drawn to the mysterious field of psychology. I began my career as a clinical psychologist testing patients and children with various types of psychoses, personality, affective, and learning disorders in hospital, outpatient, and school settings. These experiences, I came to realize, were largely without clear purpose, and my interest turned to the treatment of children's emotional and behavioral disorders. Toward this end in 1966 I took my first direct services job as a counselor of young "soft" adjudicated delinquents, at a state-run "treatment" facility. There, I learned about the nature of adult-child power relationships, and the necessity for basing interventions on good science.