Boarding School Syndrome

The psychological trauma of the 'privileged' child

Joy Schaverien

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780415690027
• eBook ISBN: 9781317506584
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Boarding School Syndrome is an analysis of the trauma of the 'privileged' child sent to boarding school at a young age. Innovative and challenging, Joy Schaverien offers a psychological analysis of the long-established British and colonial preparatory and public boarding school tradition. Richly illustrated with pictures and the narratives of adult ex-boarders in psychotherapy, the book demonstrates how some forms of enduring distress in adult life may be traced back to the early losses of home and family. Developed from clinical research and informed by attachment and child development theories 'Boarding School Syndrome' is a new term that offers a theoretical framework on which the psychotherapeutic treatment of ex-boarders may build.

Divided into four parts, History: In the Name of Privilege; Exile and Healing; Broken Attachments: A Hidden Trauma, and The Boarding School Body, the book includes vivid case studies of ex-boarders in psychotherapy. Their accounts reveal details of the suffering endured: loss, bereavement and captivity are sometimes compounded by physical, sexual and psychological abuse. Here, Joy Schaverien shows how many boarders adopt unconscious coping strategies including dissociative amnesia resulting in a psychological split between the 'home self' and the 'boarding school self'. This pattern may continue into adult life, causing difficulties in intimate relationships, generalized depression and separation anxiety amongst other forms of psychological distress.

Boarding School Syndrome demonstrates how boarding school may damage those it is meant to be a reward and discusses the wider implications of this tradition. It will be essential reading for psychoanalysts, Jungian analysts, psychotherapists, art psychotherapists, counsellors and others interested in the psychological, cultural and international legacy of this tradition including ex-boarders and their partners.

Chapter 1 Boarding School Syndrome

DOI: 10.4324/9781315716305-1

An introduction

This book is an in-depth analysis of some of the enduring psychological effects of boarding schools on men and women who, as children, lived in them for lengthy periods of time. In this introduction the main themes of the book are presented. The content of the four sections, each with an explanatory title is outlined, as well as the evolution of the term Boarding School Syndrome. The culmination of twenty years' research, this term was first proposed in a pilot study that was published in The British Journal of Psychotherapy in 2011.¹

The hypothesis, initially derived from observations from psychoanalytic practice, was that sending children away from home to boarding schools, whilst considered to be a privilege, is also psychologically damaging. As a result there might be an identifiable cluster of symptoms in the presentation of adult analytic patients who had attended a boarding school as children. Understanding this would help in identifying and treating ex-boarders. The term Boarding School Syndrome was tentatively proposed.

A more rigorous inquiry than had previously been undertaken was required in order to interrogate this hypothesis and to analyse the nature of its origins. Investigation of the literature revealed relatively little published material on the psychological impact of boarding schools. Thus a gap in the existing literature to which this book might contribute was identified. Two areas for investigation emerged. First, it became evident that the existing texts centred on the history and social impact of boarding schools, whilst the psychological impact was relatively little explored. Second, it emerged that men were the focus of most of the literature and relatively little had been written about women's experiences. Two main areas for further inquiry were thus identified. This is, as far as I know, the first full-length, research-based, psychological analysis of the lasting effects of boarding schools. It is also the first that includes examination of the impact on women. Their stories are interwoven with those of men and there are also separate chapters in which distinct gendered experiences are examined.

Boarding School Syndrome – the hypothesis

Syndrome is a term usually applied to a collection of symptoms related to disease, but it is also a combination of opinions, emotions or behaviours. The Oxford Dictionary offers the following definitions:

Syndrome: 1. A group of symptoms which consistently occur together or a condition characterised by a set of associated symptoms …

2. A characteristic combination of opinions, emotions or behaviour.²

Boarding School Syndrome is not a medical category. However, it is proposed that there is an identifiable cluster of learned behaviours and emotional states that may follow growing up in a boarding school. It is not my intention to pathologise everyone who attended a boarding school. The aim in naming this syndrome is to alert practitioners to common, identifiable, elements in the presentation of those for whom early boarding ruptured their primary attachments. These women and men, as children, had to adapt to growing up in an inflexible system and learn to hide their emotions. However, it would be a misunderstanding to limit any one person to specific symptoms. Its manifestation in each case is different, as we shall see as the book progresses. It is the pattern that is discernible.

This pattern may replay in a number of subtle ways, including the re-enactment in a marriage or life partnership of the boarding school/parent dynamic. The difficulty in identifying this syndrome is that it is rarely the presenting problem. Ex-boarders might present with a generalised sense of depression, a history of broken relationships, marital or work-related problems. They may only gradually become aware that aspects of their distress originate in the losses and broken attachments of their early childhood.

It is proposed that the learned behaviours and discontents that result in Boarding School Syndrome revolve around problems with intimacy. Whilst appearing socially confident, the ex-boarder may find intimate engagement difficult. This is a pattern observed in couples' psychotherapy where one partner – often the man – attended boarding school and is unable to talk about his feelings. It is common for the ex-boarder to make deeply dependent relationships and then suddenly emotionally, or actually, abandon the loved person. This cutting off from emotional need may be experienced by the partner as a violent attack or abrupt rejection. In analysis this pattern may replay in the therapeutic relationship and may lead to sudden termination when the rage associated with dependency begins to surface.³

Research method

The starting point for this study was observations from clinical practice. Analysis of case histories constitutes an established form of research in the field of psychoanalysis. As a method of investigation it can be traced back to Freud's early writings. Since then case studies have been the evidence on which numerous psychotherapy studies have been based.^{4 5} The research method itself has been at the centre of a number of publications.^{6 7 8} In this tradition, my inquiry began with questions raised by working with ex-boarders in analysis. Adult ex-boarders, from different generations, have consulted me over the years. Some had been boarders as far back as the 1950s, others in all the decades to the 1990s. Occasionally a general practitioner or counsellor refers children who are currently boarding. Whilst clinical case studies are useful research data, they alone were insufficient evidence on which to base what was turning into serious criticism of a long-established educational practice.

In order to question the observations and substantiate any consequent theoretical conclusions, they needed to be tested with a cluster of informants beyond analytic patients. To this end interviews were conducted with ex-boarders who were not my patients. They were recruited from amongst acquaintances and, as word spread, friends of friends volunteered. Added to this demographic were some people who, having heard me speak at conferences, volunteered to be interviewed. Thus the group of informants widened and a purposive sample was built up of informed consenting participants. Initially the inquiry began with a questionnaire followed by semi-structured interviews. However, as each interview evolved I found respondents were eager to recount their own unique experiences. These took unforeseen directions and, in most cases, the questionnaire became redundant and an emergent thematic process ensued.

An additional source of information came from unsolicited testimony. Over the past ten years I have published preliminary findings in articles in professional journals.^{9 10 11} These were taken up by journalists in the national press in 2011,¹² 2012¹³ and 2013.¹⁴ Since then, people have written to me to confirm the findings. Some of these informants were 70 or 80 years old, others were still at school or had recently left, but the majority were in their middle years. These witness accounts – from Africa, Australia, India, New Zealand and the USA, as well as Britain – contribute to the evidence of the enduring suffering caused to children by the rupture from their families at an early age. Thus this book is based on a large sample of adults who as children attended boarding schools in Britain and abroad. Even when their testimony is not quoted directly they have all contributed to the wider picture. I am indebted to each one of them for their anonymous contributions.

Discourse with colleagues, many of whom work with ex-boarders, has been invaluable. These included psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, arts therapists and counsellors; some were ex-boarders and others, like myself, non-boarders. They were consulted in peer supervision, professional meetings, conferences and informal discussions. I am also informed by supervising colleagues who work as counsellors and psychotherapists in present-day boarding schools. This evidence from other psychotherapy professionals supplements my own findings. At times it challenges and leads me to question assumptions but it also verifies and supports many of the conclusions.

Boarders in the population

The Independent Schools Council (ICS) report for 2013 compares the numbers of boarders to day pupils in schools in the independent sector. A total of 66,776 pupils board at ISC schools, which makes up 13.1 per cent of the total pupil numbers. They report that of those schools completing census returns in both 2012 and 2013, the number of pupils boarding fell by 1.4 per cent. This is in line with the percentages reported since 1987 when boarders were 25 per cent of the total of pupils in these schools. It has now fallen to 15 per cent.¹⁵ There are around 465 independent boarding schools in the UK and these accept children of any nationality. There are also 35 State boarding schools, which accept only UK pupils or those from the European Economic Area.¹⁶ What is so extraordinary about the statistics is that those attending boarding schools are a minority – yet in government most of the policy makers are ex-boarders. They are also represented in all the major institutions in Britain.

Those who enjoyed boarding

Most of the accounts in this book tell of those who suffered in their schools. It is important therefore to acknowledge that some respondents have positive memories of their boarding schools. These go beyond the rather defensive comment, commonly heard, that ‘it never did me any harm.’ Some of my respondents made it clear that the education, sense of fair play and altruism engendered in the best of the public schools, stays with them as a positive attitude all their lives. For some, the love of sport, music, art or drama acquired in their schools has greatly enriched their lives. Others remember an inspiring or motivational teacher who made a lasting impression. In my experience these are a minority, but I am aware that this may be because these people are less likely to seek psychotherapy. Many of the people who enjoyed boarding were those who first boarded when they wer...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table Of Contents
• >List of illustrations
• >Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Definition of terms
• 1 Boarding School Syndrome: An introduction
• PART I History: In the name of privilege
• PART II Exile and healing
• PART III Broken attachments: A hidden trauma
• PART IV The boarding school body
• Bibliography
• Index