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Published on: October 2, 2019
The use of dream analysis in the treatment of a nine-year-old obsessional boy
1Treatment Center, New York Psychoanalytic Institute, USA.
Abstract:
In children, as in adults, dreams offer a direct access to the unconscious. The analysis of dreams in the psychoanalytic treatment of children is, however, a neglected area. The work that a 9-year-old boy did with his dreams during the course of his two-and-a-half-year analysis is presented to demonstrate how helpful dream analysis can be in elucidating conflict and defense in the child patient. With children, the responsibility for inquiring about dreams rests with the analyst. The associations a child has to his or her dreams are as useful as an adult's.
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