Psychoanalysis and child and adolescent psychiatry

This report describes psychoanalytic advances in theory and practice as well as changes in knowledge about determinants of behavior from infancy through adolescence. These changes influence how dynamic psychotherapy is conducted. Mother-infant research, affect development, object relations separation-individuation theory, and newer concepts of regulation of self-esteem are explored as they affect treatment strategies. The authors also review countertransference transference and psychoanalytic reconstruing of adolescence as a stage and their influence on how therapy is conducted. Finally, the authors propose using a dynamic formulation as a means of determining where or when the therapist intervenes.