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FAQs

Q.  Achieving identity through analysis
My question is regarding Erikson's life stage of Identity vs Role Confusion. If identity achievement is not attained in adolescence, can analysis enable a person to attain identity achievement later in life?
Q.  Adolescent Psychoanalysis
Has the American Psychoanalytic Association set any guidelines on adolescent psychoanalysis?
Q.  "Analyst as Midwife"
I wonder if you might know the reference for Freud's analogy of the analyst as midwife?
Q.  Alice Miller
I am interested in the work of Alice Miller. What is her reputation? How has her work been received over time? On what psychoanalytical traditions and theories does she base her work (both positively and negatively)? Any citations?
Q.  Art Analysis
I would like to know whom I could consult to analyze the paintings of a severely disturbed but uncommunicative child. Do you know of people who specialize in this? What is the name of the field? Does it fall under psychiatry or psychology?
Q.  Autism
I am doing an essay comparing behaviorist and psychoanalytic approaches to autism. I am having problems finding how psychoanalysts treat autism and what they think the cause is.
Q.  Child Abuse
I am a student in California. I am doing a research paper on Child Abuse. I want to powerfully convey to my audience the tragedy of Child Abuse and what can be done about it. Your insights on this field will be very helpful to me.
Q.  Child Analysis
Can you tell me about the effectiveness of psychoanalysis for children?
Q.  Child Development
I am a senior in High School. I am currently enrolled in competitive speech and debate. For my next speech tournament, I have decided to take the negative on a bill proposed by congress. This bill states that if a child drops out of high school or misses a certain number of consecutive days of school, their driver's license should be taken away or they will be denied the right to take their driving test. After much research I have taken the negative for many different reasons I have decide to take the negative rather than the affirmative. Looking on-line for a particular question became almost impossible. With thousands of web sites on the subject matter of child psychology, I chose yours at random. Can you help me out? At what age does a child develop the most physically and mentally? If you could provide any information at all it would be greatly appreciated.
Q.  Child Psychoanalysis
Could you please tell me how a child can develop through psychoanalysis?
Q.  HOW DOES A CHILD COMMUNICATE WITH AN ANALYST OR A THERAPIST?
Q.  Childhood Trauma and Psychological Development
I am interested in how one's ego development or psychological development is affected by a trauma occurring in childhood. How would one's adult ego or personality develop? I am interested in Erikson's perspective or any other.
Q.  Confidentiality and Children
Does Jaffee v. Redmond have any bearing on the exception to the confidentiality privilege that is often stated in custody cases where the best interests of the child are asserted? When the exception has been made for the best interests of the child, and a subsequent civil case comes along not related to the best interests of the child, do you believe a trial judge has the power to rule that because the privilege has been waived in the best interests of the child then it no longer exists. The principle being once the smoke is out of the bottle we can't get it back in.
Q.  Depression in Children
Por favor me podria informar acerca de la melancolia en niúos. (Please give me some information on depression in children.)
Q.  Emotional Development of a Child
Would you be so kind as to send me information about the emotional development of a child. I am doing a class project on it, and it would be greatly appreciated.
Q.  Grief in Childhood
I'm doing my A level psychology and I have an assignment essay dealing with how counseling affects children who are grieving. It implies that counseling is counter-therapeutic. I need to find evidence to support or contradict this, but it needs to be psychological . The article also implies that children do not really go through a grief process and that divorce causes more problems than death of a family member can you please help me find evidence for these?
Q. 

Infant Observation in Analytic Training

What is the role of infant observation in the training of analysts?

Q.  Nature vs. Nurture in Personality Development
I am writing a psychology paper with the above topic. I would like to get some details on how genetics and environment (nurture) contribute to an individual's personality from birth to death?
Q.  Newborns in Parents' Bed
I am interested in locating information concerning the negative and/or positive influences on a new born sleeping with parents in the parents bed. I would like to find articles and/or studies relating to either the mental and/or physical effect on a newborn this may have.
Q.  Play Therapy
Which is the best institute to study play therapy? I currently live in Essex.
Q.  Play Therapy
Can you please direct me to some resources on psychoanalytic play therapy? I'm particularly interested in its history and development. I could also use a brief summary of the psychoanalytic view of play.
Q.  Play Therapy
I am a member of the Hamilton-Wenham History Fair Research Team. We are studying play therapy as a frontier in history. We were wondering if you knew of any sources that you would recommend for us as to better understand the development of the theories of play therapy (with Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Virginia Axeline, etc.). Also, if you know of any university libraries on the East Coast (we live in Massachusetts) that would be a worthwhile visit for more information, that would be very helpful as well.
Q.  Psychoanalytic vs. CBT Treatment for Children
I am a graduate student with a Masters in Clinical Psychology, pursuing a Psy.D. at a cognitive-behaviorally-focused clinical psych program. What little exposure I have to psychoanalysis/dynamic therapy (coursework, articles, books, seminars) has convinced me that this is a preferred treatment approach to others I have been exposed to. A primary reason for this choice is that analytic work includes many features inherent in personal growth and development work that I pursue in my own life and which I think are vital in helping clients progress in health. Many other treatments, such as CBT, seem to be missing a vital piece to alleviating problems, early experiences and the impressions they leave on the unseen world of the unconscious and how that unconscious influences later, adult life. I also think that this type of work has much longer lasting effects on the individual. My reason for mailing you is to ask if you are aware of any additional articles or sources similar to Fonagy & Target (1996), citing the advantages of psychoanalysis in the treatment of children. As I progress my studies in a predominantly CBT program, I will need to continuously justify my choice of this approach in the conceptualization and treatment of children. I am surrounded by skeptical professors and supervisors who pressure me to pursue CBT regardless of the population and problem. Of course, this is a case of "if I had only known then what I know now." I wish to make the best of the situation, learn as much as I can, and integrate theories when appropriate to individual cases. Again, thank you for any referrals you can provide.
Q.  Psychotherapy with Adolescents
I work with adolescents, and would like to use psychoanalytic therapy. I would like to know how to best use this form of therapy with, with specific examples or techniques.
Q.  Right from Wrong in Children
I have a simple question. What is the age at which children know right from wrong?
Q.  "Seduction Theory"
What are your feelings about the "seduction theory" that was founded by Freud.
Q.  Setting Limits with Children
I am from Australia and was wondering if you could please help me in an assessment I am working on for school. It relates to child development and the intervention of parents in child fights/arguments and how these later affect the child. I would greatly appreciate if you could please provide me with any information possible.
Q.  Sleep Problems in Children
My question focuses on psychoanalytic views regarding how to teach an infant to get to sleep by himself. I have a six month old boy who is healthy in every way, and has been a source of profound joy since coming into our lives. The problem is that he continues to wake up at least two times during the night for feedings. My wife and I have read many books and viewed many tapes, most of which advocate allowing the baby to "cry it out" so that he somehow learns to go to sleep on his own in about three days. We are opposed to this method, as we are concerned about putting him through a terrifying experience in which we are not supposed to comfort him. We are also, however becoming exhausted from sleep deprivation and need to get some uninterrupted sleep. How can psychoanalysis help us with this problem?
Q.  Showering with Children
I am writing to request an opinion on the appropriateness of showering with pre-adolescent children. At what age would it be considered no longer appropriate to shower with one's child?
Q.  Television for Children
1) What are your true feelings about the whole controversy over television being healthy or not?
2) Everyone has a different idea as to what the most negative effect television has on children. What do you feel is the worst effect? (Violence, obscenity, etc.)
 3) When you deal with children, do you find that a lot of problems could be caused by them being exposed to too much television?
4) If so, what are some of the behaviors that cause you to think so?
5) In a case where you do find these behaviors, what do you usually suggest to these children, or their parents, in order to help them from any damage later on?                                                                                         6) Do you feel compelled to believe that television might even have a positive effect on children? (For instance, educational programs, keeping kids out of trouble, etc.) If so, what good effects could television have on children?
7) Have you ever heard of Freestyle, which was a television series helping kids to understand that men and women could both be equally successful in life? Do you believe this show to have been helpful to children (if you have heard about it).
Q.  Tourette's Syndrome
What is the psychoanalytic perspective on the emotions and motor and verbal compulsions seen in Tourette's Syndrome? In the early 1920s, Sandor Ferenczi concluded that tics were a symbolic representation of repressed masturbatory desires. One would hope that the current psychiatric view has progressed beyond this.
Q.  Twins
I am doing a research on the subject of fraternal twins: the separation and individuation process and the consequences in their interpersonal relationships. I am interested in obtaining material from your library, including the work of Edward Joseph.
Q.  Working with Disturbed Children
I am a "classroom teacher" at a residential/educational placement facility for profoundly learning disabled and behaviorally challenged children (ages 6-12). Typical diagnoses include infantile autism, autism, pervasive developmental delay, mental retardation and impulse control disorder. Unfortunately (from my perspective), the prevailing and exclusive educational / "therapeutic" approach is that of applied behavioral analysis. Can you direct me to an entry point into the literature on a psychodynamic approach for such a population and setting. I would like to have at my disposal a few more varied strategies and insights than those offered by the descendants of Pavlov and Skinner.
Q.  Womb Fantasies
I would like to know what role the "womb" plays in the theories of psychoanalysis; if someone has written something about feelings children can have when they are in the womb, or when they come out from it.
Q.  Would you please explain the correlation between learning disabilities and memory (i.e. implicit/explicit memory)? For example, is the difficulty of learning mathematics for a child related to a certain kind of memory process/difficulty and/or side of the brain?

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