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From war nursery to therapeutic milieu
1Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA.
Insights
Childhood violence is understood as a response to overwhelming experiences, with aggressive behavior providing a sense of vitality. Psychoanalytic intervention programs foster tension management and ego development in troubled youth.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Psychoanalytic Theory
- Societal Violence
Background:
- Compares child care during WWII bombings (Anna Freud) with contemporary troubled youth in poverty and violent families.
- Violence in children is viewed as a response to depleting and overwhelming environmental experiences.
- Aggressive behavior can provide a sense of vitality for children experiencing overwhelming circumstances.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the issue of violence in childhood and society from a comparative psychoanalytic perspective.
- To describe a psychoanalytic intervention program for seriously troubled children and adolescents.
- To explore the underlying causes of aggression in children exposed to adverse environments.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of historical and contemporary child care contexts.
- Application of psychoanalytic concepts, including the therapeutic milieu.
- Utilizing crisis management, life-space interviewing, therapeutic education, and psychotherapy within group living.
Main Results:
- Violence is understood as a coping mechanism for overwhelming experiences.
- Psychoanalytic interventions enhance tension management and ego development.
- Therapeutic milieu fosters a safe environment for managing aggression and promoting growth.
Conclusions:
- Psychoanalytic approaches, grounded in the therapeutic milieu, are effective in addressing childhood violence.
- Interventions focusing on crisis management and ego development support troubled youth.
- Understanding violence as a response to environmental factors is crucial for effective treatment.
Abstract:
The issue of violence in childhood and society is reviewed from the comparative perspective of the care of children by Anna Freud and her colleagues during the bombing of World War II and the plight of seriously troubled children and adolescents living in poverty and in violent families in contemporary society. Consistent with observations reported by Mahron, violence among these children is understood as a response to a world experience that is depleting and overwhelming; some sense of being alive is provided through aggressive behavior. Founded on the concept of the therapeutic milieu as described by Aichhorn, Bettelheim, and Redl and Wineman, the psychoanalytic intervention program described here fosters enhanced capacity for tension management and ego development via techniques of crisis management within the group living situation, incorporating the life-space or marginal interview, therapeutic education, and psychotherapy.