A Case Of Conditioned Fear In A Two-Year-Old Boy After Tonsillectomy

Abstract

Some behavioural sequelae after tonsillectomy in a two-year-old boy are described. It is made an essential point that the pre-verbal or pre-logical child (0-5 yrs) is especially vulnerable to hospital practices. The behavioural sequelae observed in this patient are interpreted and treated according to learning theory in contrast to the global psychoanalytical ways of treating such phenomena. Some sort of conditioned phobic reactions are supposed to occur in most pre-verbal children during 'hospitalization and parents should be informed to observe the behaviour of their children after they have been discharged from hospital.