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The sixty-third edition of Psychoanalytic Study of the Clild, dedicated to the memory of Peter Neubauer, continues in its tradition of theoretical and clinical excellence, as well as of extending the purview of psychoanalysis. Both classical and cutting-edge concepts and understandings are explored.
This volume is an antidote to the widespread sense of despair so many of us experience in contemplating the future of child analysis as we note the scarcity of child analytic cases and the limited opportunity we have to engage in it. Here we see child analysis alive and well, and at its best. We see how important it is for it to thrive, to buck the trend toward treatments aimed at specific symptoms, with no appreciation of the role of development and the complexity and importance of the whole individual.
Although this is evident in all of the contributions, it is most clearly underlined in an article by Luyten and colleagues, “Equifinality, Multifinality and the Rediscovery of the Importance of Early Experiences: Pathways from Early Adversity to Psychiatric and (Functional) Somatic Disorders.” The authors decry the disorder-centered approach, noting that pathways to the end state are complex, the result of multiple developmental pathways (multifinality) or similar factors leading to dissimilar outcomes (equifinality). This idea, which underlies current research in psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and genetics, counters popular reductionism. Individuals experiencing early trauma are highly vulnerable to a wide variety of somatic and psychological disorders.
If we can abandon the misplaced effort to locate the specific etiological agent of each specific disorder, we are free to consider complex interactions between early and later life experiences, inner and outer conflicts, and their interactions with biological endowment. It frees us to consider the therapeutic encounter and wonder about the transformation that allows for an opening up of development. This topic is pursued