Vogel, E.F. Bell, N.W. (1960). The Emotionally Disturbed Child as a Family Scapegoat. Psychoanal. Rev., 47B(2):21-42. Welcome to PEP Web! Viewing the full text of this document requires a subscription to PEP Web. If you are coming in from a university from a registered IP address or secure referral page you should not need to log in. Contact your university librarian in the event of problems. If you have a personal subscription on your own account or through a Society or Institute please put your username and password in the box below. Any difficulties should be reported to your group administrator. Username: Password: Can't remember your username and/or password? If you have forgotten your username and/or password please click here. Once there, click the 'Forgotten Username/Password' button, fill in your email address (this must be the email address that PEP has on record for you) and click "Send." If this does not work for you please click here for customer support information. OpenAthens or federation user? Login here. Not already a subscriber? Order a subscription today. ( 1960 ). Psychoanalytic Review , 47B (2): 21-42 The Emotionally Disturbed Child as a Family Scapegoat Ezra F. Vogel and Norman W. Bell The phenomenon of scapegoating is as old as human . Sir James Frazer records, in The Golden Bough, numerous instances, reaching back to antiquity, of public scapegoats, human and otherwise. He views the process of scapegoating as one in which “… the evil influences are embodied in a visible form or are at least supposed to be loaded upon a medium, which acts as a vehicle to draw them off from the people, village, or town.” The scapegoat's function “… is simply to effect a total clearance of all the ills that have been infesting a people.” Frazer was dealing with the phenomenon at the level of a , tribe, village, or town. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the same phenomenon within families, by viewing an emotionally disturbed as an embodiment in visible form of certain types of conflicts between parents. This pattern is a special case of a common phenomenon, the achievement of group unity through the scapegoating of a particular member. It is perhaps more widely known that a group may achieve unity through of hostilities to the outside, but there are also a large number of cases where members of a particular group are able to achieve unity through scapegoating of a particular member of that group. Thus the deviant within the group may perform a valuable function for the group by channeling group tensions and providing a basis for solidarity. The notion that the family is in large part responsible for the emotional health of the is a compelling one in contemporary behavioral science. [This is a summary or excerpt from the full text of the book or article. The full text of the document is available to subscribers.]