Showing papers by "Anna Freud Centre published in 2002"
TL;DR: The therapist is a clinical observer of the relationship between parent and infant and an emotional participant in it, and from the behavioural and affective interactions, she deduces their emerging mental models and procedures of being with each other.
Abstract: Psychodynamic psychotherapy with parents and infants addresses the relationship between them where there has been a disruption or distortion in the process of bonding. Often this is characterized by a repudiation of the state of infancy by the parent, and a negation of infantile needs in the baby and in herself. The infant joins the mother in co-constructing defensive measures against their infantile attachment needs, thereby actualizing intergenerational repetitions. The therapist is a clinical observer of the relationship between parent and infant and an emotional participant in it. From the behavioural and affective interactions, she deduces their emerging mental models and procedures of being with each other. Her role is to represent symbolically, for both parent and infant, their experience of being with the other. Through this the affective dialogue is elaborated, to include feeling and thought constellations that were previously enacted procedurally. The paper illustrates these ideas about the therapeutic process through transcripts of case material.
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a nine-month period in a slow open analytic psychotherapy group for mothers and infants is described, where the authors describe the process of creating a reliable setting, or group culture, and its role as a prerequisite for therapeutic change.
Abstract: I take clinical material from a nine-month period in a slow open analytic psychotherapy group for mothers and babies, to illustrate its potential as a therapeutic modality. I describe the process of creating a reliable setting, or ‘group culture’, and its role as a prerequisite for therapeutic change. Vignettes are used, alongside my commentary, to display the passionate involvement between mothers and infants, also with therapists, which develops in a shared therapeutic experience. Relationships formed in this group provide the vehicle for its holding and containing capacity, as members grow up and live through, collapse and recover, re-visit and re-work their internal worlds through the group's weekly action.
I make reference to mothers and babies using titles based on their behaviour. This is an aide-memoire for the reader's mind which, of course, doesn't mean that each individual behaved only in that way.
5 citations