Nelleke Bakker
Biographic Data
| ID | 5787582 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nelleke Bakker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nelleke |
| FAMILY NAME | Bakker |
| SIGNATURE | BAKKER N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Groningen |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9425-1844 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
From defence mechanism to insufficient bladder control
This article discusses the conceptualisation of enuresis nocturna by Dutch experts between c.1950 and 1990, years in which across the West new child sciences rapidly developed. Today, bedwetting is conceived as a mental illness caused by a mixture of nature- and nurture-bound factors. Have organic and environmental causes always figured as twins, even in the post-war decades of predominant environmentalism in psychological theory and clinical pra…
From talking cure to play- and group-therapy
After World War II in the Netherlands, outpatient mental health care for children expanded greatly. The number of Child Guidance Clinics grew, and university child-psychiatric clinics and Youth Psychiatric Services were newly established. The leading diagnostic and treatment ideology was mainly Freudian and focused on psychotherapy. During the 1960s the Child Guidance Clinics were outstripped by the more innovative university clinics that introdu…
Child guidance, dynamic psychology and the psychopathologisation of child-rearing culture ( c . 1920-1940)
The historiography of child guidance has focused primarily on the United States, where it first developed before travelling across the English-speaking world. The rapid expansion of child guidance in the interwar years was enabled by private philanthropy, which provided fellowships to foreign professionals to study in the United States. This article focuses upon the transnational transfer of child guidance, the dynamic psychology on which it was …
In search of the unconscious
This article discusses the science-based diagnostic observation in a Dutch girls’ reformatory in the 1950s. Scientisation of the observation implied that to the medical examination upon entry and observation of a child’s behaviour were added a psychological assessment, a psychiatric examination, and an inquiry into the family of origin. Inspired by dynamic psychology it was part of a strategy to promote a more professional and individualised trea…
Professional competence and the classification and selection of pupils for schools for “feebleminded” children in the Netherlands (1900–1940)
This article explores the tensions between medical and pedagogical professionals involved with the classification and selection of pupils for the special day-schools for “feebleminded” children that were established from 1900 in the Netherlands to promote compulsory mass schooling’s efficiency. These are set against the increasing influence of child sciences, including the new technique of intelligence testing. These schools were meant for educab…
An oedipal conflict on an epileptic basis”
This article discusses the diagnosing and treatment of behavioural problems in a pioneering Dutch child psychiatric clinic in the 1950s. This was headed by Theo Hart de Ruyter, the first Dutch professor of child psychiatry and a psychoanalyst. It is generally assumed that during postwar years child psychiatry was primarily influenced by Freudianism with its focus on a nurture-related aetiology of children’s behavioural problems. This assumption h…
In the interests of the child
This paper discusses illegitimacy and single motherhood in the postwar period in the Netherlands from the perspective of what was considered to be in the interests of the child: being adopted by a married couple or being raised by the birthmother. It focuses particularly on the impact of psychiatry and the legalization of adoption in 1956 on the emancipation of the single mother and her child. The paper argues that the release of single motherhoo…
Promoting school efficiency
This paper explores the meaning of child health as applied by Dutch school doctors and the way it was adapted to the rapidly improving standard of living and the increasing importance of mental health after World War II. It focuses on both the national discourse and school doctors’ daily activities. For the latter the countryside of the Province of Groningen, a relatively poor area, is chosen. Despite assertions that their profession subscribed t…
A culture of knowledge production
This article focuses on the role the Dutch school for children with “learning and behavioural problems” (LOM) has played in knowledge production about learning disabilities and in the development of academic study of special education between 1949 and 1985. LOM-schooling grew rapidly during these years and attracted relatively many experts. In the selection and admission of LOM-children they had to be distinguished from normal, mentally deficient…
Brain disease and the study of learning disabilities in the Netherlands (c. 1950–85)
This paper discusses the role brain disease has played in the discourse and practices of child scientists involved in the study of learning disabilities and behavioural disorders from the 1950s up to the mid-1980s, particularly in the Netherlands as part of a developing international scientific community. In the pre-ADHD era, when child sciences established themselves as academic fields of study and special education expanded quickly, brain-relat…
Westward bound? Dutch education and cultural transfer in the mid-twentieth century
This article discusses the transition from philosophy to psychology as the main source of inspiration for education during the mid-twentieth century in the Netherlands, situated between Germany in the east and the English-speaking world in the west. Claims have been made that educational theory in the Netherlands was dominated by German philosophy before 1945 and subsequently turned westward for inspiration. The transnational transfer of ideas an…
Making a mess in the mud”
In this article, the author discusses plans that were launched at three consecutive conferences on care for toddlers between 1929 and 1938 in the Netherlands. These plans and their realisation are evaluated in terms of what was seen as the missing link in the supply of institutional care for young children. The author identifies the professional forces and their concerns, as well as their chosen techniques and cognitive forms. The “discovery” of …
Discovering social inequality
Between the 1940s and 1960s across Western Europe a spirit of reform along comprehensive lines manifested itself in secondary education, aiming at a reduction of the existing social inequality of educational chances. These reforms are said to be rooted in new policies and in new approaches in educational studies. This article explores the relationship between educational reform and educational science in a country, the Netherlands, which did not …
Before Ritalin
This article is concerned with the history of the neurological disorder that preceded ADHD: ‘neurasthenia’ or nervousness, conceived of as a functional disease of the nervous system. Around 1900 it appeared on the scene of children’s disorders and it disappeared at the time of the pharmacological turn in psychiatry by the late 1960s. In spite of a series of adversary conditions neurasthenia survived. To explain this the author traces the history …
Child Guidance and Mental Health in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, as in the United States, the introduction of the concept of 'mental health' in education is closely related to the development of a network of child guidance clinics. The first of these was established in Amsterdam in 1928. However, a substantial movement to actively promote mental health did not come into existence until after the Second World War. Unlike in the USA, at the time in the Netherlands the school was considered of…
Education and the Emancipation of Jewish Girls in the Nineteenth Century
In the Netherlands the first girl admitted to a qualifying secondary education and the first female university student were sisters, Frederika and Aletta Jacobs. These girls, twelve- and seventeen-years old, entered the respective institutions in 1871 after the father and Aletta had made successful requests. In each case the admission brought an end to a long-standing male privilege. And in each case contemporaries conceived of these ambitious gi…
A Mysterious Success
This article examines the success of Doctor Benjamin Spock's best selling “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” (1946). It focuses on the case of the Netherlands during the 1950s. As in the United States, the book immediately became extremely popular after the first Dutch edition was published in 1950. In this case, however, the doctor's success was not at all likely, as conditions that are commonly held responsible were absent. First, t…
The Meaning of Fear. Emotional Standards for Children in the Netherlands, 1850-1950
This essay considers the changes in standards for children's fear and for ways of handling it in Dutch parental guidance literature between 1850 and 1950. Stearns and Haggerty's hypothesis about a Western transformation of fear from an avoidable and relatively unimportant emotion to fear as a normal aspect of a child's mental life, inspired by the American case, is put to the test of comparison. First, an outline of Dutch social history is given,…
A Curious Inconsistency
During the first half of this century, a curious inconsistency existed in girls' secondary education in the Netherlands. On the one hand a majority of educationalists repeated objections against coeducation for girls over twelve. On the other hand the greater number of girls—or indeed their parents—continued to prefer mixed schooling. This article examines the arguments brought forward. It also tries to give an explanation of the enduring and rem…
Child-Rearing Literature and the Reception of Individual Psychology in the Netherlands, 1930–1950
(1998). Child-Rearing Literature and the Reception of Individual Psychology in the Netherlands, 1930–1950: The Case of a Calvinist Pedagogue. Paedagogica Historica: Vol. 34, History of Educational Studies, pp. 583-602
The Lamp in the Living Room. Dutch Family Educationalists on Adolescence, 1915‐1950 ∗
Until now Dutch historical youth studies have not focussed on the family as an educational environment. However, since World War I pedagogues have had high hopes of parents as educators of their teenage sons and daughters. On the basis of research into advice literature the author shows how family educationalists contributed to curtailing the ‘dangers’ of adolescence. Parents were recommended to loosen the reins on their adolescent children. This…
Child Guidance and Mental Health in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, as in the United States, the introduction of the concept of 'mental health' in education is closely related to the development of a network of child guidance clinics. The first of these was established in Amsterdam in 1928. However, a substantial movement to actively promote mental health did not come into existence until after the Second World War. Unlike in the USA, at the time in the Netherlands the school was considered of…
A Curious Inconsistency
During the first half of this century, a curious inconsistency existed in girls' secondary education in the Netherlands. On the one hand a majority of educationalists repeated objections against coeducation for girls over twelve. On the other hand the greater number of girls—or indeed their parents—continued to prefer mixed schooling. This article examines the arguments brought forward. It also tries to give an explanation of the enduring and rem…
In the interests of the child
This paper discusses illegitimacy and single motherhood in the postwar period in the Netherlands from the perspective of what was considered to be in the interests of the child: being adopted by a married couple or being raised by the birthmother. It focuses particularly on the impact of psychiatry and the legalization of adoption in 1956 on the emancipation of the single mother and her child. The paper argues that the release of single motherhoo…
Making a mess in the mud”
In this article, the author discusses plans that were launched at three consecutive conferences on care for toddlers between 1929 and 1938 in the Netherlands. These plans and their realisation are evaluated in terms of what was seen as the missing link in the supply of institutional care for young children. The author identifies the professional forces and their concerns, as well as their chosen techniques and cognitive forms. The “discovery” of …
The Meaning of Fear. Emotional Standards for Children in the Netherlands, 1850-1950
This essay considers the changes in standards for children's fear and for ways of handling it in Dutch parental guidance literature between 1850 and 1950. Stearns and Haggerty's hypothesis about a Western transformation of fear from an avoidable and relatively unimportant emotion to fear as a normal aspect of a child's mental life, inspired by the American case, is put to the test of comparison. First, an outline of Dutch social history is given,…
The Lamp in the Living Room. Dutch Family Educationalists on Adolescence, 1915‐1950 ∗
Until now Dutch historical youth studies have not focussed on the family as an educational environment. However, since World War I pedagogues have had high hopes of parents as educators of their teenage sons and daughters. On the basis of research into advice literature the author shows how family educationalists contributed to curtailing the ‘dangers’ of adolescence. Parents were recommended to loosen the reins on their adolescent children. This…
A Curious Inconsistency
During the first half of this century, a curious inconsistency existed in girls' secondary education in the Netherlands. On the one hand a majority of educationalists repeated objections against coeducation for girls over twelve. On the other hand the greater number of girls—or indeed their parents—continued to prefer mixed schooling. This article examines the arguments brought forward. It also tries to give an explanation of the enduring and rem…
Child-Rearing Literature and the Reception of Individual Psychology in the Netherlands, 1930–1950
(1998). Child-Rearing Literature and the Reception of Individual Psychology in the Netherlands, 1930–1950: The Case of a Calvinist Pedagogue. Paedagogica Historica: Vol. 34, History of Educational Studies, pp. 583-602
The Meaning of Fear. Emotional Standards for Children in the Netherlands, 1850-1950
This essay considers the changes in standards for children's fear and for ways of handling it in Dutch parental guidance literature between 1850 and 1950. Stearns and Haggerty's hypothesis about a Western transformation of fear from an avoidable and relatively unimportant emotion to fear as a normal aspect of a child's mental life, inspired by the American case, is put to the test of comparison. First, an outline of Dutch social history is given,…
A Mysterious Success
This article examines the success of Doctor Benjamin Spock's best selling “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” (1946). It focuses on the case of the Netherlands during the 1950s. As in the United States, the book immediately became extremely popular after the first Dutch edition was published in 1950. In this case, however, the doctor's success was not at all likely, as conditions that are commonly held responsible were absent. First, t…
Education and the Emancipation of Jewish Girls in the Nineteenth Century
In the Netherlands the first girl admitted to a qualifying secondary education and the first female university student were sisters, Frederika and Aletta Jacobs. These girls, twelve- and seventeen-years old, entered the respective institutions in 1871 after the father and Aletta had made successful requests. In each case the admission brought an end to a long-standing male privilege. And in each case contemporaries conceived of these ambitious gi…
Child Guidance and Mental Health in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, as in the United States, the introduction of the concept of 'mental health' in education is closely related to the development of a network of child guidance clinics. The first of these was established in Amsterdam in 1928. However, a substantial movement to actively promote mental health did not come into existence until after the Second World War. Unlike in the USA, at the time in the Netherlands the school was considered of…
Before Ritalin
This article is concerned with the history of the neurological disorder that preceded ADHD: ‘neurasthenia’ or nervousness, conceived of as a functional disease of the nervous system. Around 1900 it appeared on the scene of children’s disorders and it disappeared at the time of the pharmacological turn in psychiatry by the late 1960s. In spite of a series of adversary conditions neurasthenia survived. To explain this the author traces the history …
Discovering social inequality
Between the 1940s and 1960s across Western Europe a spirit of reform along comprehensive lines manifested itself in secondary education, aiming at a reduction of the existing social inequality of educational chances. These reforms are said to be rooted in new policies and in new approaches in educational studies. This article explores the relationship between educational reform and educational science in a country, the Netherlands, which did not …
Making a mess in the mud”
In this article, the author discusses plans that were launched at three consecutive conferences on care for toddlers between 1929 and 1938 in the Netherlands. These plans and their realisation are evaluated in terms of what was seen as the missing link in the supply of institutional care for young children. The author identifies the professional forces and their concerns, as well as their chosen techniques and cognitive forms. The “discovery” of …
Brain disease and the study of learning disabilities in the Netherlands (c. 1950–85)
This paper discusses the role brain disease has played in the discourse and practices of child scientists involved in the study of learning disabilities and behavioural disorders from the 1950s up to the mid-1980s, particularly in the Netherlands as part of a developing international scientific community. In the pre-ADHD era, when child sciences established themselves as academic fields of study and special education expanded quickly, brain-relat…
Westward bound? Dutch education and cultural transfer in the mid-twentieth century
This article discusses the transition from philosophy to psychology as the main source of inspiration for education during the mid-twentieth century in the Netherlands, situated between Germany in the east and the English-speaking world in the west. Claims have been made that educational theory in the Netherlands was dominated by German philosophy before 1945 and subsequently turned westward for inspiration. The transnational transfer of ideas an…
Promoting school efficiency
This paper explores the meaning of child health as applied by Dutch school doctors and the way it was adapted to the rapidly improving standard of living and the increasing importance of mental health after World War II. It focuses on both the national discourse and school doctors’ daily activities. For the latter the countryside of the Province of Groningen, a relatively poor area, is chosen. Despite assertions that their profession subscribed t…
A culture of knowledge production
This article focuses on the role the Dutch school for children with “learning and behavioural problems” (LOM) has played in knowledge production about learning disabilities and in the development of academic study of special education between 1949 and 1985. LOM-schooling grew rapidly during these years and attracted relatively many experts. In the selection and admission of LOM-children they had to be distinguished from normal, mentally deficient…
In the interests of the child
This paper discusses illegitimacy and single motherhood in the postwar period in the Netherlands from the perspective of what was considered to be in the interests of the child: being adopted by a married couple or being raised by the birthmother. It focuses particularly on the impact of psychiatry and the legalization of adoption in 1956 on the emancipation of the single mother and her child. The paper argues that the release of single motherhoo…
An oedipal conflict on an epileptic basis”
This article discusses the diagnosing and treatment of behavioural problems in a pioneering Dutch child psychiatric clinic in the 1950s. This was headed by Theo Hart de Ruyter, the first Dutch professor of child psychiatry and a psychoanalyst. It is generally assumed that during postwar years child psychiatry was primarily influenced by Freudianism with its focus on a nurture-related aetiology of children’s behavioural problems. This assumption h…
Child guidance, dynamic psychology and the psychopathologisation of child-rearing culture ( c . 1920-1940)
The historiography of child guidance has focused primarily on the United States, where it first developed before travelling across the English-speaking world. The rapid expansion of child guidance in the interwar years was enabled by private philanthropy, which provided fellowships to foreign professionals to study in the United States. This article focuses upon the transnational transfer of child guidance, the dynamic psychology on which it was …
In search of the unconscious
This article discusses the science-based diagnostic observation in a Dutch girls’ reformatory in the 1950s. Scientisation of the observation implied that to the medical examination upon entry and observation of a child’s behaviour were added a psychological assessment, a psychiatric examination, and an inquiry into the family of origin. Inspired by dynamic psychology it was part of a strategy to promote a more professional and individualised trea…
Professional competence and the classification and selection of pupils for schools for “feebleminded” children in the Netherlands (1900–1940)
This article explores the tensions between medical and pedagogical professionals involved with the classification and selection of pupils for the special day-schools for “feebleminded” children that were established from 1900 in the Netherlands to promote compulsory mass schooling’s efficiency. These are set against the increasing influence of child sciences, including the new technique of intelligence testing. These schools were meant for educab…
From defence mechanism to insufficient bladder control
This article discusses the conceptualisation of enuresis nocturna by Dutch experts between c.1950 and 1990, years in which across the West new child sciences rapidly developed. Today, bedwetting is conceived as a mental illness caused by a mixture of nature- and nurture-bound factors. Have organic and environmental causes always figured as twins, even in the post-war decades of predominant environmentalism in psychological theory and clinical pra…
From talking cure to play- and group-therapy
After World War II in the Netherlands, outpatient mental health care for children expanded greatly. The number of Child Guidance Clinics grew, and university child-psychiatric clinics and Youth Psychiatric Services were newly established. The leading diagnostic and treatment ideology was mainly Freudian and focused on psychotherapy. During the 1960s the Child Guidance Clinics were outstripped by the more innovative university clinics that introdu…
Psychology (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Historical Education Studies Worldwide (12 works) · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes (12 works) · Law (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Psychiatry (9 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Medicine (7 works)