Translating child analysis from the playroom to the classroom: opportunities and choices

Over the years, psychoanalysts and educators have made efforts to meld a psychoanalytic orientation with the education of young children. The resulting programs have variously been called psychoanalytic nurseries, therapeutic nurseries, therapeutic preschools, or psychoanalytic early childhood programs. The methodology of the application or integration of psychoanalysis with the education of young children has received relatively little attention. After a brief historical review of the application of psychoanalysis to helping children in group educational settings, a number of features common to programs integrating psychoanalysis and early childhood education are described. A specimen program is next presented in which an application of psychoanalysis is used to assist children whose development is proceeding in a psychopathological direction. Also demonstrated are various ways in which psychoanalysis may be adapted to such programs, some options involved, and the capacity, realized and potential, for work within a therapeutic nursery to expand the field of inquiry and the therapeutic action of child analysis as conducted within a traditional framework.