Hate is a potent factor in undermining feelings of love and all that it implies. We all hate from time to time, but children hate more than adults. Paradoxically, they are also more amenable to improvement and treatment. But these matters are seldom openly discussed.

The contributors to this book discuss how to recognise and handle hatred in a practical way. The contributors include two psychiatrists, four social psychologists, three psychotherapists, two educationalists and a sociologist. They are all recognized and experienced in their fields. Their different perspectives enable the reader to obtain a comprehensive picture of available models and management approaches to children's primitive hatred. The points will be made that individual symptoms and types of hatred need to be assessed by relating them to the social and family contexts within which they occur.