"I want to know, too". Psychotherapy with a visually impaired boy

This paper discusses the psychotherapy of a latency boy who suffered from a progressive visual impairment. It first describes some of the problems blind and visually impaired children meet in their development: (1) difficulty in constituting objects, (2) as this is accomplished, difficulty in separation, (3) the need to establish concrete contact with the object world, and (4) aspects of their identification. The psychotherapeutic treatment of Peter is presented with emphasis on the following themes: (1) Peter's demands to be allowed to enter the "secret room" (which seemed to reflect concretized but ungraspable aspects of the therapist), (2) functions of Peter's profuse questioning, (3) Peter's attempts to handle excitement, and (4) concreteness in Peter's experiences and also in his identifications. The themes are discussed from the point of view of the progressivity of his visual impairment.