The pupil that drops out of school

Abstract

I found the clinical case of Filippo interesting in that it offers opportunities for reflection about contexts, in particular those based on the tasks model.
The organizational aspect that grounds relations on the tasks model is an organization that guarantees membership and is based on the symbolization of a power that dominates and prescribes “what to do” in a repetitive, predictable way. Performing the task therefore entails knowing the rules of the organization one belongs to well enough to correspond as closely as possible to its expectations. The one who lays down the law, moreover, also exercises control over procedures and their outcomes, a control that cannot be questioned and which does not envisage the checking of objectives attained.
Admittedly, this inclusion of an external power, which discourages the acquiring of competences in the constructing of the product and entails giving up the power to make decisions, has something reassuring about it: it avoids confronting the unknown, the foreign that is frightening. Its effect is to produce repetitive behaviours that are quick to perform, predefined procedures that free one from the dilemma of choosing, from thetension of risk and from the effort required in pursuing a goal. 
These aspects can be found in a great many contexts: in the family, when it acts as the guarantor of exclusive membership; in the school, when learning involves studying in order to learn what the teacher expects and what the curricula lay down, in Health Services, when one encounters situations that force one to face one’s own impotence.