Aspects are outlined of the psychotherapy of two adolescents who were starting to emerge from a previous state of chronic (though high-functioning) autism. A central theme is the difficulty these adolescents had in tolerating the separateness of others (and thus the possibility that others could be lost) and at the same time being unable to remain…

The psychic significance of the figure of the grandmother in psychodynamic psychotherapy has received scant attention. This paper develops the concept of the "grandmaternal transference" in parent-infant psychotherapy and explores its identification, its possible functions and its therapeutic significance. The grandmaternal transference has…

This study aims to discuss the most recent data about child psychotherapy dropout, especially child psychoanalytical psychotherapy. The authors also try to offer some possible alternatives to prevent such a phenomenon. The definition of "child psychotherapy dropout" is extensively discussed. The goal has been to attempt to create a standardised…

The aim of this paper is to describe some acute responses to the suicide of a parent, through the account of the analytic psychotherapy of a latency child who found the body of his dead father. The acute traumatic responses of the child show that the perceptual apparatus, time and space are subverted, while the functioning of the contact barrier…

This paper describes the use of play in the psychotherapy of a latency child from a severely traumatised background. It considers the meaning of play in relation to the role of the psychotherapist and to psychotherapeutic technique and explores its functions in terms of the child's development. The paper documents the psychotherapist's learning…

This paper describes the setting up and the first year of running of an innovative outreach service for adolescents on the edge of care that aimed at redressing family breakdown and preventing placements in the care system. It was a collaborative endeavour between social services and a child and adolescent mental health provision to facilitate the…

This paper describes a systematic thematic analysis of one particular latency-aged children's group and includes a discussion about potentially helpful outcomes measures. The impetus for our small, practice-based qualitative research project came from the two papers by Reid (1999) and Canham (2002) about children's psychotherapy groups,…

This article illustrates a little boy's journey from autistic-like symptoms into more adaptive ways of coping with trauma and separation. Drawing from the psychoanalytic literature on autism and trauma, it discusses how traumatic events in the first two years of life may cause a child to withdraw from social relationships and cause developmental…

I hope in this paper to show how Bion's theory of thinking and his later theory of transformations in hallucinosis, enabled psychotherapy in a special school setting many years ago to be undertaken with a psychotic child who was constantly hallucinating. The work was carried out under the expert supervision of Dr Donald Meltzer who managed…

The authors discuss an application of Bion's conceptualisation of thinking and non-thinking states (K and -K links) to the treatment of a nine-year-old girl. The authors consider Bion's interrelated concepts such as K and -K, container/contained, maternal reverie, and the development of thinking through alpha function to be highly applicable to…

For many years psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapies have been considered to lack a credible evidence-base and have consistently failed to appear in lists of "empirically supported treatments." This study systematically reviews the research evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and young people.…

The article begins with a brief exploration of the various aspects of adolescent's psychic qualities as these are described in Greek mythology. It is argued that myths are an integral part of the way that adolescence is perceived and myths play an important role in adolescents' psychic and external world, as well as in their mythological thinking.…

The author discusses the technical difficulties encountered in clinical work with children who have suffered an early trauma, as is often the case for fostered and adopted children. An account of the first five years of psychotherapy with a nine-year-old boy, who was removed from his birth family at an early age, will be elaborated in some detail…

In this paper, I explore how we might link ideas about clinical facts to current issues in child psychotherapy research. I consider what our understanding of clinical facts might contribute to our research methods and how our research methods might better represent the clinical facts. The paper introduces a selection of psychoanalytic writers'…

During the First World War, Bion fought in three major battles over a period of two years. He left ample writings both honest and soul searching. Travelling to The Front under raging pressure from his father, he enlisted in a state of mind, which fluctuated wildly between wanting to be a "hero" and sudden fears that made him join the…