With contributions from Aidalida Altamirano, Carl Bagnini, Ana Maria Barroso, Anabella Brostella, Vali Maduro, Elizabeth Palacios, David Scharff, Jill Savege Scharff, Kate Scharff, Caroline Sehon, Lea Setton, Yolanda Varela, and Janine Wanlass. An Introduction to Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy is for adult and child therapists who want to learn about treating children and adolescents from a psychoanalytic perspective. It is a comprehensive introduction to provide adult psychoanalytic therapists with enough information and support to take up the challenge of beginning child and adolescent psychotherapy and to give CBT and sand play therapists access to a psychoanalytic perspective on work with young people. It grew from lectures and discussions with therapists over the course of a two-year training program, covering theory and technique of assessment and therapy, play, ethics, and work with parents. The contributors show how to deal with the common symptom presentations, how to establish a relationship, deal with resistance, engage in play, and interpret unconscious conflict. Included are clinical case conferences and consultations, and North and Central American, European, and Chinese clinical examples provide global relevance. This edited book is a group effort that presents a compendium of basic principles of practice and has a grounding in ethics and research, child and adolescent development, psychoanalytic theory of childhood, wellness and psychopathology of childhood, treatment technique, and consulting in the community to schools, agencies, and family court. This is a must-read book for all professionals engaged in working with children and adolescents, and for psychotherapists who would like to learn more about working with young people from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Table of Contents:
List of figures and tables Preface and acknowledgements About the editor and contributors Part 1: Introduction: context and stance for the child psychotherapist Orientation to play and psychoanalytic child and family assessment and therapy Carl Bagnini, Anabella Brostella, David Scharff, and Jill Savege Scharff The ethical stance in child psychotherapy Caroline Sehon Finding cultural humility Janine Wanlass The research basis for psychoanalytic child therapy Janine Wanlass Learning from process notes Janine Wanlass Part 2: Child and adolescent development The beginning of life Jill Savege Scharff Classical psychosexual and psychosocial theories of child development Jill Savege Scharff Infancy: The oral phase, integration, and disintegration Anabella Brostella Toddlerhood: The anal stage Anabella Brostella Preschool age: The phallic–narcissistic stage Jill Savege Scharff Kindergarten age: The oedipal stage Caroline Sehon Elementary school age: latency Ana Maria Barroso and Janine Wanlass Middle school age: puberty and preteen Lea Setton High school age: adolescence Ana Maria Barroso Part 3: Psychoanalytic theory of childhood Infancy: the mother–infant relationship Anabella Brostella Attachment Janine Wanlass Containment: Bion David Scharff Holding, handling, and the psychosomatic partnership: Winnicott Yolanda Varela Transitional space, transitional objects: Winnicott Anabella Brostella The role of relationships in endopsychic structure formation: Fairbairn David Scharff Early anxieties and projective identification: Klein Ana Maria Barroso The child in the family group: transgenerational inheritance and Bion’s three basic assumptions Carl Bagnini Unconscious communication: dreams and play Caroline Sehon The interpersonal unconscious and the transgenerational transmission of psychic trauma Caroline Sehon Sibling relationships and identity formation Anabella Brostella The impact of divorce on children and families Kate Scharff Suicide Vali Maduro Neuroscience and psychoanalysis Caroline Sehon Part 4: Clinical examples of wellness and symptom presentations of childhood Symptom presentations of childhood Jill Savege Scharff Situational and developmental crises: a healthy response Yolanda Varela Somatoform disorder: a disorder of anxiety Aidalida Altamirano and Jill Savege Scharff Obsessive–compulsive disorder: a disorder of anxiety Ana Maria Barroso Suicidality: a disorder of mood Jill Savege Scharff Addiction: a disorder of behavior Elizabeth Palacios Psychic trauma: a disorder of reaction Caroline Sehon Tic disorder: a disorder of mental functioning Jill Savege Scharff Attention deficit/hyperactivity: a neuropsychological disorder of mental functioning Jill Savege Scharff Learning disorders: disorders of written expression and reading Ana Maria Barroso Anorexia and bulimia: disorders of psychophysiology Janine Wanlass Encopresis and enuresis: a disorder of development Jill Savege Scharff Autism: a disorder of development David Scharff and Jill Savege Scharff Gender fluidity: a disorder of gender David Scharff Part 5: The child psychotherapist at work in the treatment room Working with parents Jill Savege Scharff Assessing family dynamics Carl Bagnini Child assessment for beginning therapy David Scharff Transference and countertransference (focused and contextual) David Scharff Interpretation Ana Maria Barroso Psychotherapy with toddlers Janine Wanlass Psychotherapy with latency age children Janine Wanlass Psychotherapy with a teenager Ana Maria Barroso Psychotherapy with adolescents and their families Anabella Brostella Child psychotherapy using technology after COVID Elizabeth Palacios Psychometric testing and psychodynamic formulation in child/adolescent assessment Janine Wanlass Part 6: The child psychotherapist at work in the community Consulting with schools Carl Bagnini Working with family service agencies and child protective services Lea Setton Child abuse and alternate care Janine Wanlass Adoption and left-behind children Janine Wanlass Epilogue References Index