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THE LAST TWO DECADES HAVE BEEN rich in observation and research related to the early years of human development. Ethologists, developmental psychologists, and psychoanalysts have made numerous attempts to reassess their own theories with new facts. They have sought to modify and refine explanations which, by necessity, had been limited by the naturalistic or experimental context of their own fields of interest as shown in the work of Ainsworth (1969), (1972), Bowlby (1969), (1973), Duyckaerts (1974), Gewirtz (1972), Harlow (1965), Spitz (1965). Most of these attempts had been centered on the nature and evolution of object relations and attachment behaviors, as they develop during the first two years of life. After this period, it is still mostly uncharted territory as far as the normal development of attachment is concerned: it is even more so when it comes to the relationship between attachment, object relations and transference as it appears in the course of psychoanalysis. This paper is an attempt to discuss this relationship and its impact on the therapeutic management of disturbed adolescents.
The patients who served as a basis for this paper can be briefly described as follows: three of them were in therapy two or three times a week for periods ranging from two to five years, their age range being between thirteen to eighteen years; a fourth patient started therapy at seventeen and continued until she was twenty-two years old.
The socio-economic backgrounds of these patients were above average. They were of superior intelligence with artistic skills