Note 30 — Chapter V · THE FAMILY AND THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY

This, of course, is especially liable to be the case in those children—for example in most of those technically described as "mentally deficient" and in many of those technically described as "backward"—who do not readily acquire interest in the details of a process leading to a desired end, apart from the end itself (i. e. in whom work does not become pleasurable for its own sake), or in those in whom there is no strong self feeling associated with the idea of successful achievement. The granting of an undue amount of assistance will, however, in its turn tend to retard or prevent the formation of these desirable mental characteristics.