A.F. Brafman, now a retired National Health Service consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and still a practising child and adult psychoanalyst, is a highly experienced clinician. He brings a multi-perspective understanding to how the unconscious manifests in the symptoms of children and adolescents, drawing on practical aspects of case management, family systems understanding and psychoanalytic model(s) of the mind. The richness of his clinical insights, deeply rooted in extensive experience, are conveyed in jargon-free clear prose. The author's stance is judicious. In making the case for considering the unconscious he is non-partisan as regards medication and the use of ‘rewards’ to optimize behavioural change when necessary. He also