Developmental Breakdown and Psychanalytic Treatment in Adolescence

Plot

This book describes the assessment and psychoanalytic treatment of nine severely disturbed adolescents. The belief that underlies the discussion is that psychopathology has a different meaning in adolescence than it does in childhood or adulthood and that the severe disorders of this period-some of which give the impression of the presence of psychosis, confused thinking, and distortions of body image-may be more responsive to intensive psychodynamic treatment than has been previously thought.In four chapters that precede and follow the clinical studies, Moses Laufer and M. Egle Laufer discuss essential issues relating to the structure of some of the severe psychopathologies of adolescence and their assessment and treatment. They address, for example, the relationship between perverse behavior and psychotic functioning in adolescence; the nature of the transference in the treatment of these adolescents; the implications for altering the course of psychopathology and conducting an analysis of the severely disturbed adolescent; and the ways to differentiate degrees of mental disorder.The contributors of the clinical studies- Ronald Baker, Marion Burgner, Donald Campbell, Janet Humphrey, Anne Hurry, Rosalie Joffe, Roger Kennedy, Kanwal Mehra, and Ranald Urquhart-present detailed clinical descriptions and raise critical issues about the psychoanalytic treatment of adolescents who are compelled to live out perverse fantasies; those who have attempted suicide or mutilated their those whose acute breakdown is a sign of an impending psychotic withdrawal.