In recent years, increasing recognition is being given in all phases of mental health practice to the importance of clinical diagnoses that encompass the total dynamic picture of the patient in his intimate life relationships.1,2,3 From this point of view, symptoms of emotional disturbance are seen less as intrinsically significant and more as the patient's symbolic communications to his intimates of his otherwise suppressed needs in living with them. Particularly in child psychiatry has it been understood that evaluation of a child's disturbance and planning for his treatment cannot be separated from an understanding of the total pattern of family interaction.4-9 The focus of this study is to underscore the need for attention to the covert strivings of parents as they apply for hospitalization of their child. If this attention is not paid, the institution may be entering into a "contract" in accepting the