Helping foster children to mourn past relationships

In spite of the increasing number of foster children who have had pathological relationships with their biological parents, there are relatively few reports of intensive therapy with these children. This paper focuses on the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of two young foster children whose treatment began shortly after placement. The paper describes the children's developmental problems, their conflicts and defenses, and the therapeutic process utilized to enable them to resume progressive development. The children were helped to mourn their past objects and to form more appropriate attachments to their foster parents.