Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis in a Changing World: Children on the Edge

This book applies psychoanalytic insight to work with children and adolescents in a changing, often traumatic, world.

Each chapter considers how psychoanalysis can develop and be developed, assessing how in the modern world, psychological disturbance and psychological trauma is manifest in new, unfamiliar ways. From new and different social and technological realities, to the internet, and new sexual discourse, each chapter explores how the analyst can hold onto fundamental psychoanalytic understandings of mental functioning, address the young patient’s or family’s need for containment, while respecting the importance of drives, the varieties of psychosexuality, and the powerful impact of anxiety on psychological development. In relation to children, these authors disclose the potential destructiveness of impingements from adults on a precious, vulnerable development.

This collection is essential reading for all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as other health and educational professionals working with children and adolescents.

Catalina Bronstein is a training and supervising analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and a former president of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She is a child and adolescent and adult psychoanalyst and works at the Brent Adolescent Centre in London and in private practice. Bronstein is also Visiting Professor at the Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London.

Sara Flanders is a training and supervising psychoanalyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She works at the Brent Adolescent Centre in London and is Co-Chair of the Child and Adolescent Forum of the European Psychoanalytical Federation.