Disordered Mind Series #10:The Case of a Pre-delinquent Girl: Girl in Danger

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 1965

Creator: Moride Film Productions (Canada)

Complete Record: Presents a case study involving a thirteen-year-old pre-delinquent. Shows how individual counseling and group therapy at the adolescent unit of a psychiatric hospital help her to face her problems with more maturity and greater control. A thirteen-year-old girl who looks eighteen is out of control of herself and her parents. June Cumberland, MD (McGill University, Montreal Children’s Hospital), interviews the girl on various matters: smoking, sex, boys, picked up by police, school, trouble at home, her attitudes about herself and her behaviors, acting out, defiance, little control over diet, temper, time, lying, etc. The images of the girl in these interviews is sullen and rebellious. These shots say a lot about the character of the girl. The psychologist interviews the girls’ parents on the same subjects. Statements are filmed and given by her schoolteachers, police officers, the boarding school mistress who describe her behaviors: Rule breaking, creating disturbances in other children and their groupings, S. J. Shamsie, MD, Director of the Adolescent Unit, Verdun Protestant Hospital, has a new way of treating endangered adolescents. This hospital gives individualized and personal treatment that is required in the situation where a child is on the verge of going delinquent. There is footage of the endangered girls around a table and attentive staff nearby. There are shots of staff supervising the girls’ activities and individual projects. Henry Durost, MD, Senior Psychiatrist, Verdun Protestant Hospital. Doctor says that the endangerment that the girl is vulnerable to: attack and rape. She is vulnerable to “group think” and could turn toward a life of crime, prostitution, Interaction with her family is discussed. She has a brother. She makes progress, but parents accept that this is a long term problem. The interview shots are of individual heads. Psychiatrists and patient do not appear in the same shot conversing. The film is shot very directly with little action except as one can imply from faces and those shots of the interior of the adolescent care area. There is connecting narration by an unidentified man that is probably Robert Anderson, producer.