Abstract: The context for this paper is the ongoing systemic/psychoanalytic debate. It offers an alternative perspective to the recent contribution by Brodie and Wright (2002), in which they are concerned to underscore difference between the two therapeutic approaches. Here it is argued that the relationship is a great deal more complex than Brodie and Wright's analysis might suggest. Attention is focused on significant areas of commonality, in particular the impact of social constructionist thinking across the two therapies as well as current developments in technique. A case is made for the consolidation of generic space where there is opportunity for cross-fertilization and for integrative and combined systemic/psychoanalytic approaches to be nurtured and developed where appropriate. Case vignettes are used to highlight different aspects of the generic component in child and family therapy and to underline the need for bridge-building between these key therapeutic approaches in the field.

Abstract: In the first part of the overview the author draws on the papers in this issue to support the argument that school violence is but one form of social violence with which modern life confronts us. Without ‘modeling’ from the top down, it is hard to imagine how viable programs for violence prevention in schools can be developed and implemented. Coercion is the rule within most social systems, with the exception of families where secure attachments dominate. In secure organizations social influence is exercised in a framework dominated by an awareness of the mental states, concerns, thoughts, and feelings of individuals within the system—that is, a capacity for mentalization. The creation of a peaceful learning environment requires enhancement of the child's consciousness of his or her own awareness of others' awareness of him/her. In the second part of the overview the author questions whether all violence is understandable in these ways or in any way at all. He suggests for reconsideration the classical psychoanalytic notion of threat as a manifestation of a destructive drive. He speculates that violence may occur in two ways and for two reasons which are often conflated and confused. A psychoanalytic theory of this second type of violence is briefly outlined.

Abstract: I read Professor Khantzian’s target paper with some disappointment, and I was unhappy when I was asked to be a discussant. His observations cover a great deal of ground but do not, to my mind, make an appropriate basis for an exchange of views between psychoanalysts and neuroscientists on the vexing question of addiction. Indeed, his “psychodynamic perspective” seems to minimize some crucial psychoanalytic concepts. Unconscious mental functioning receives scant, if any, attention, outside the following sentence:

Abstract: This paper reports on associations observed between Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs) obtained from adoptive mothers, and emotional themes appearing in doll play narratives obtained from their recently adopted children. The children, aged 4 - 8 years, carried into their adoptive placements a history of consistently serious maltreatment, including neglect and abuse. Results reveal strong and significant influences of maternal state of mind regarding attachment upon their adopted children's story-completions. Mothers whose AAIs were judged insecure (either dismissing or preoccupied) were likely to have adopted children who, three months after placement, provided story-completions with higher levels of aggressiveness as compared to the stories provided by children adopted by mothers with secure-autonomous AAIs. Children whose adoptive mothers provided AAIs indicative of unresolved (as opposed to resolved) mourning regarding past loss or trauma provided story completions with higher scores for emotional them...

Abstract: Children who develop their ‘internal working models’ of attachment in situations of neglect or abuse, carry the effects of these models into new placements if they are then adopted or fostered. Thi...