Disordered Thought and Development: Chaos to Organization in the Moment (The Vulnerable Child: Studies in Social Issues and Child Psychoanalysis)

There is a moment at every level of psychological development in which the mind comes face to face with a challenge. This moment can last for a literal moment in time or it can extend for years―becoming the leading edge of development. Disordered Thought and Development: Chaos to Organization in the Moment explores the processes around that moment. The exploration begins with a psychotic analysand in which these processes loudly reveal themselves. From there, the exploration extends to a young child with pervasive developmental disorder and then on to four other cases, each revealing the elements and dynamics necessary for development to proceed.

One of the elements includes the vicissitudes of affect from its raw, unprocessed form that is initially experienced as chaotic bodily sensations without meaning to one that carries meaning, purpose, and direction. Another element is the organizational capacities that help to solve a problem that has never been solved before. The dynamics of the moment can be understood within the context of non-linear systems theory as the mind is conceptualized as a self-organizing system in the process of evolving. This book provides clinicians with a touchstone that can help guide development of all the individuals they are called on to assist whether they are anxious, obsessional, psychotic or neurotic, and whether they are children, adolescents, or adults.

Theodore Fallon, MD, has twenty-five years of experience as a child and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He is the director of the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Program at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia.

Susan P. Sherkow, MD, is a training and supervising analyst at the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute and Society and an instructor and supervising analyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and Society. She is also an assistant clinical professor at the Mt. Sinai and Albert Einstein Colleges of Medicine.