82 FARRERAS
different approaches and to study “the roles of the child care worker,
the psychotherapist and the teacher” where ordinary psychotherapy
alone had been unsuccessful.^4
The branch consisted of scientists whom Cohen had recruited prior
to Redl being appointed laboratory chief. Their early research focused
on four areas: 1) the factors that determined whether rage would be
expressed or controlled, and the staff ’s and children’s attitudes toward
expressed rage, destructiveness, intragroup conflict, physical settings and
therapeutic interventions; 2) the identification of problems emanating
from the staff when attempting to deal with such expressed rage; 3) a
content analysis of the records expert and non-expert observers kept of
the children’s behaviors; and 4) psychological assessments of the children
within the therapeutic setting in order to predict future behavior.^5Donald A. Bloch, M.D.
Branch Member
Courtesy of the National Institute
of Mental HealthBy 1955 it had become apparent that the Clinical Center ward was
an ideal setting for the study of the biological and somatopsychic aspects
of emotional disorders and the care of chronic, degenerative disease but
it was not adequate for therapeutic community studies.^6 As a result, the
construction of a half-way house was authorized. This half-way house
provided the controlled environment of the Clinical Center ward but
also allowed for a permissive, uncontrolled setting more in tune with
what the children’s own homes or future foster homes would entail.^7 The
Children’s Treatment Residence was constructed where the present day
Building 37 stands. The goals of the Residence were threefold: 1) to collect