Approaches to the Psychological Treatment of Juveniles in Detention

IN BEN OKRI'S PRESTIGIOUS BOOKER PRIZE WINNING NOVEL, THE Famished Road, one finds the story of Azaro, a spirit child who is born only to live for a short while before returning to the idyllic world of his spirit companions, but who chooses to stay in the world of the living. Azaro says "There was not one amongst us who looked forward to being born. We disliked the rigours of existence, the unfulfilled longings, the enshrined injustices of the world, the labyrinths of love, the ignorance of parents, the fact of dying, the amazing indifference of the living in the midst of the simple beauties of the universe . . . But this time I wanted to stay . . . I wanted to make happy the bruised face of the woman who could become my mother" (Okri 1991, p. 9.)