The severely disturbed adolescent: indications for hospital and residential treatment

Certain groups of preadolescent and adolescent children suffer from developmental and adaptive problems serious enough that they become candidates for full-time hospital or residential treatment. The author reviews the diagnostic criteria that justify such placement and describes these groups of children and adolescents, with particular attention to borderline and narcissistic personality disorders. He concludes by emphasizing the need for a psychodynamic, rather than merely symptom-focused, approach to milieu treatment.