En gång Skå-pojke- : en studie av 20 f d Skå-pojkars erfarenheter av Barnbyn Skå

• Towards the end of the 1950’s the men who are part of the project were in care for at leastone year at the childrens’ Village of Skå, the well-known and psychodynamically orientedtreatment home for Stockholm’s most difficult problem children of school age. Barnbynand its care-receivers have already been the subject of extensive research. This is,however, the first time the treatment is analyzed from a purely care-receiver perspective.The aim of the study is to gain insight into what Barnbyn Skå meant to the former Skåboy. The question is furthermore if there are important differences between the formerSkå boys’ reconstructions of life and activities at Skå. If this is the case, is it posssible tounderstand the psychological background to it?Through qualitative interviews with a richly varied selection of twenty Skå boys, today menof 35-40 years of age, their current living conditions and memories of Barnbyn, Skå, werestudied, a Skå which a long time ago had been transformed from an outer object to aninner Skå picture, which, similar to other inner objects, has a dynamic relationship to thepresent time. The former Skå boy’s adult existence could be described as a life experiencewhich was either mainly good (6), both good and bad (6) or mainly bad (8). Therelationship to his original family, and especially to his own father, was shown to bestrongly connected to his self-image and ability, or inability, to function as a partner in arelationship, as a father and as an employee.When the Skå pictures were analyzed within each of the three life experience categoriesBarnbyn was presented as both heaven and hell. The relationship to the parents had thesame determining importance for the stay at Barnbyn as it had for life experience as awhole. The interpretations of the Skå pictures’ psychological background led to the factthat the separation from the parents was given such different epithets as 1) A relief, 2) Aphysical but not a psychological separation, 3) Something the boy could not understand aswell as 4) A rejection. From a care-receiver perspective it was not possible to talk of auniform Skå but rather of twenty Skå arenas in which each and everyone used Barnbynand its inhabitants as the setting of the scene for their own particular situation. Separationas a relief meant that Barnbyn became a salvation from painful home conditions. At thesame time as the Skå boy could develop important relationships at Barnbyn, hemaintained, in spite of everything, contact with his parents. The physical butnon-psychological separation from his parents meant that Barnbyn became more of animprovement institution than a place for relationships between people. In his heart andsoul the Skå boy was still at home. The separation which could not be understood andmoreover the repression of the family world seems to have been a prerequisite for analmost ideal adjustment to Barnbyn. These three separation patterns with their matchingSkå pictures are present within the good life experience and within the life experience ofboth good and bad. Within the bad life experience the separation is equivalent to rejectionand the Skå pictures are the same as the rejected child’s setting the scene for thisrejection. The more naked the rejection, the greater the opposition to treatment.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Barnbyn Skå

Institutioner

pojkar

Problembarn

Ungdomsvård

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