Editorial

This issue contains a range of papers of clinical, theoretical and historical interest, reflecting both the breadth of work undertaken by child psychotherapists and the consolidation and development of theoretical concepts based on accumulated clinical experience.

Reeves’ paper traces the mutual influence of Winnicott and Docker-Drysdale on each other in the area of work with deprived children. The paper arises out of Reeves’ long involvement with the Mulberry Bush School and reflects his familiarity with, and depth of knowledge of, the work of both these clinicians. It is a paper that will be of interest to the many child psychotherapists involved in consulting to children's homes or other forms of residential provision, and brings to attention the important work pioneered by Dockar-Drysdale in this area.

Miller's paper, like the subsequent ones on autism, builds upon the work done by child psychotherapists with patient groups once considered unsuitable for treatment. This paper, like Pecotic's, considers the child's response to what he or she sees in the eyes of the mother and the feelings that are reflected in them. Both believe that what the baby encounters there - be it the disappointment Miller describes or the ‘black hole’ found by Pecotic's patient - is crucial to the development of the self, the capacity for relating, the development of the mind and the ability to think. This way of conceptualizing experience is presumably a reflection of the centrality of infant observation in the training of child psychotherapists. Both papers also underline the particular necessity for careful examination of transference/countertransference experiences in order to reach conclusions about the nature of early object relations and how these get re-evoked in the therapist-patient relationship.

In this edition there are three papers concerned with children on the autistic spectrum. These papers seek to further the conceptualization of these mental states, pioneered by child psyc