The Body and Compulsion from Infancy to Young Adulthood: New Perspectives on Addiction, Self-Harm and Suicide

The Body and Compulsion from Infancy to Young Adulthood: New Perspectives on Addiction, Self-Harm and Suicide examines the complex interplay between early childhood experiences and the development of compulsive behaviours across the lifespan, with a focus on how these compulsions present from infancy to young adulthood.

A diverse group of international psychoanalysts from a range of theoretical perspectives and clinical experiences examine the severe bodily symptoms and syndromes often seen in young patients. They provide profound insight into the metapsychological foundations of repetition and destructiveness. Through compelling clinical vignettes and theoretical explorations, the contributors demonstrate how early trauma and neglect can disrupt the psyche, leading to damaging behavioural and emotional pathologies. Conditions such as eating disorders, depression, anxiety, violent behaviour, suicidality, and addiction are explored in detail, with the contributors highlighting the challenges they pose in the therapeutic setting and offering guidance on how to navigate sessions with those suffering from them.

This essential volume provides invaluable insights for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and mental health professionals working with patients struggling with compulsive patterns, while also offering theoretical depth for scholars interested in early development, trauma, and the foundations of psychic structure.

Christine Anzieu-Premmereur is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst based in New York City, USA. She is the series editor of the Routledge Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis Book Series and the co-editor of A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Contemporary Search for Pleasure (2023), The Infinite Infantile and the Psychoanalytic Task (2022) and A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Body in Today's World (2017).

Mary T. Brady is an adult and child psychoanalyst in San Francisco. She is the author of Psychoanalysis with Adolescents and Children: Learning to Surf (2024) and the editor of Braving the Erotic Field in the Treatment of Children and Adolescents (2022), as well as author of Analytic Engagements with Adolescents (2018) and The Body in Adolescence (2015).

Christine Franckx is a child psychiatrist and training (child) analyst in the Belgian Psychoanalytic Society. She is the EU co-chair of COCAP. She works in private practice in Antwerp with adults, children and infants.

Fernando M. Gómez is a pediatrician, psychiatrist, and child and adolescent psychoanalyst of the Asociación Psicoanalítica Argentina (APA), FEPAL, and IPA. He is the Latin America Co-Chair of COCAP and works in private practice in Buenos Aires with adults, children, and infants.