Constitution Typology in Curative Education

 

Von Martin Niemeijer,
Arzt für Kinder mit besonderen Bedürfnissen
Forscher Kingfisher Foundation – Bolk’s Companion Group

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Einleitung
Companion-Autor Martin Niemeijer veröffentlichte im Oktober 2024 in Der Merkurstab einen Artikel über Konstitutionstypologie bei Kindern. Dieser Artikel(*) kann unten in der Originalsprache heruntergeladen werden.
(*)Die Bilder der kindlichen Konstitution. Der Merkurstab, 77(5), 315-322.

Abstract

Children´s development happens in a field of polar creative processes. This leads to a continuous balancing act initiating an individual, dynamic equilibrium. This activity and its resulting processes are fragile and must not remain stuck in the one-sidedness of either of the poles. Three polarities were developed in Rudolf Steiner's Curative Education Course concerning six constitution pictures that encompass the fundamental dimensions of the child's organism. These pictures can be used to describe the child’s constitution, which can be followed by individualized curative education and therapeutic support and treatment. An instrument has been developed for coordinating treatment in the use of these pictures as well as for training. We show how the instrument has proven itself in research and practice since it was first developed.

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Keywords

Constitution typology

Polarity

Balance

Basic processes in child development

Picture-forming diagnostics

Development of an instrument​

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Introduction

Learning that their child has a developmental disorder is a profound experience for parents leading to fear and uncertainty about the future. What was taken for granted in the life of parents and child initially disappears and a period of grief sets in. Over time, a new balance and perspective can be found. Parents and their social environment must develop a new outlook in order for life to go on. In his course on curative education in the 1920’s, Steiner emphasizes that healing and education are very closely related (1). In the twelve lectures of the course, he gives prospects and tools for a healing education. This article presents how these findings have inspired us to new activities.

 

Three Polar Types in Constitution

In the third to fifth lectures of the Curative Education Course (1), Steiner outlines six pictures of when child development becomes unbalanced and one-sided. In previous lectures, he explains how the child's soul (psyche) and spirit (I) take ownership of the body, which is built up according to the rules of heredity. The incarnating being shapes the nervous system and senses making it into a whole (synthesis). Thus organized, this system can be the basis of our thinking. On the other hand, the incarnating soul and spirit differentiate as they shape the diverse individual organs in the metabolic system and limbs (analysis). The differentiation in this part of the human organism makes it suitable for our willing and directed movement. In between, in the middle of the human organism, in the lungs and heart, a rhythmic process of connecting (synthesis) and letting go (analysis) develops with breathing and circulation; this rhythmic process is the basis of our feelings.

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In this context, Steiner develops six constitution pictures in three polar contrasts. Constitution pictures are not the same as a clinical diagnosis; they rather show processes in children’s organization that express balance or imbalance. Steiner refrains from a definitive systematization in favor of a lively phenomenological description: the terms "constitution picture" or "polarity" are not found in the course; they are the result of efforts to grasp its fundamental principles. In this article, this has led us to employing terms that have been used for the past twenty or so years to characterize the constitution pictures (2):

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