the bond between mother and child, he discerned
the environment which is required if
fundamental human development is to occur.
The mother has to be sufficiently empathetic
(in Winnicott’s memorable phrase, “good
enough”) and able to tolerate aggression.
Only so will the child gain a sense of selfesteem
and discover that his or her powerful
impulses can be used creatively without
destroying relationships. One consequence of
the elaboration of this theory is that greater
attention has since been paid to the family as
a system rather than as an agglomeration of
individuals (Shapiro, 1982). Rice does not use
this language, but implicit in the design of the
conference that he describes is the need for
sufficient holding for the members. He
derives this thinking from Bion’s work on
groups which has been and remains seminal
(Bion, 1961), though not slavishly. One task of
the staff is to provide the conditions which
are necessary for any regression by the members
and containment of their aggression and
disarray. They do this principally by working
to time and territory and to the educational
task, especially by eschewing tendencies to
therapeutizing.