“Children Without Love”

An obituary on Professor Zdenek Matejcek

by Dr. Eliane Gautschi

On 26 October 2004 the child psychologist and researcher Zdenek Matejcek, renowned beyond the borders of his home country, died at the age of 82. He is known today as the founder of the so-called Czech School of Child-Psychology and in important and meticulous studies he examined the conditions for the development of the child.

Zdenek Matejcek’s journey through life was not always easy and was influenced by the political conditions of the East Bloc countries in the middle of the past century. With the aim of becoming a teacher he originally studied philosophy and literature. However, political circumstances prevented him from being allowed to become a practising teacher. He began to work at the Institute of Social Education where he was first of all involved in research into different learning disorders. Later, he concentrated on long-term observations of children and worked in depth on the question of the basic conditions required for the healthy emotional development of the child. He devoted special attention to children, who – as was more or less usual at that time in the East Bloc countries – spent a large part of the day in collective educational institutions and who were socially at risk.

There was evidence of alarming psychological disorders among some of these children, which could only be attributed to the lack of a warm-hearted attachment to a constant significant person and a lack of emotional attention. He described the situation of the children in child care institutions in his mother country perfectly, but political circumstances being what they were, he only received little positive echo from the authorities and administration. Among experts, though, his research results were well received and led to immediate improvements in the care concepts of these institutions. Further research followed. Together with Josef Langmeier he published the book “Psychological Deprivation in Infancy – Children without love”, which was translated into different languages and found recognition among other experts in the field.

Zdenek Matejcek emphasised the significance of the family as the emotional home of the child and showed how each family member, in a natural and direct manner, could play an important role in fulfilling vital needs in the physical, mental, intellectual and moral development of the child. In 1963 the film “Children without Love”, directed by Kurt Goldberger, was produced. In an understanding and moving way, the problem of child education outside the family home was raised and the effects of a lack of attachment on the development of the children shown.

After winning three awards at the Venice film festival, the film was given the attention it deserved in other countries. It was not until 1990 that the film could also be shown in Matejcek’s own country. Since the film shows Zdenek Matejcek himself working with children, it is also a document of his remarkable and inspiring personality.

Even today, the film and the research results contained in the book ought to be compulsory subject matter for anyone training in the field of child education.

It was not until 1995 that Zdenek Matejcek was given the title of professor. For many years he worked as a pedagogue at Prague’s Charles University and co-operated with the Prague Centre of Psychiatry. His research results were written about in the media, and in 1996 he was awarded a medal “For Merit” by Vaclav Havel.

In his final years he was a regular guest speaker at the annual developmental psychology conferences of the Theodor Hellbruegge Foundation where he spoke about the significance of relationship and attachment for the child’s development. His lectures, so rich in content, and his personality had a formative influence on the conferences.

In his home country he also remained active until the end and his death has left a painful void, as the president of the Czech Institute of Social Medicine and Public Health, Frantisek Schneiberg, expressed: “I am very happy that I had the opportunity to work together with professor Matejcek. We worked in the same paediatric clinic in Prague. Some weeks ago I discussed with him the concept of the substitute family welfare in the Czech Republic. I had looked forward to submitting with him the draft to the Ministry. That now is, unfortunately, no longer possible and it saddens me deeply.”

Up to his death, Zdenek Matejcek remained a researcher, and, as he recently said on Radio Prague, for him many problems still remained to be solved: “There is still much we need to learn. We still do not really understand the smallest children, because the child is unable to say anything to us. We only try to decode his behaviour and assume or guess what the child roughly experiences. We are not able to prove it to ourselves by any experiment.”

Zdenek Matejcek not only influenced generations of child psychologists, paediatricians, pedagogues and educators, but left us his studies and research results, a legacy which we can continue to draw upon.