Editorial

This edition of the Journal of Child Psychotherapy offers a wide range of articles. The first two articles are on adolescence. The first is a psychoanalytically based account of outreach work with pregnant adolescent mothers and the second an original look at constructions of adolescence through ancient and modern myths. These are followed by two research-based articles, one from a primarily attachment-based perspective and the other from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Anne Hurley's ‘Reparation by proxy: experiences of working with pregnant teenagers and adolescent mothers’, describes brief interventions with pregnant teenagers, adolescent mothers, their infants and their wider families. She puts forward the interesting view that the adolescent who has herself experienced failure in her primary relationship with her mother may seek to repair this by becoming a mother herself but whilst still at a stage when her own identity is forming. The second clinical example of the daughter who ‘soaks in’ the experience of watching her own mother in the act of mothering her daughter is a vivid image of the ‘experience by proxy’, trying to capture that which had been missed.

Anastasopoulos et al. contribute an unusual and distinctive article about myth and mythologising and its relevance in adolescence. The inspiration that Freud derived from ancient Greek mythology comes alive in their interesting and comparative exploration of myth, mystical wisdom, fairy tale and ritual. They use a wide lens to consider representations of unconscious life in narratives of all kinds before homing in on myth and mythologising in particular. Using a fascinating weave of myths from ancient and contemporary times, they argue that myths convey enduring societal perceptions or perhaps misperceptions about adolescents. There is a theme throughout the article of myth containing elemental and facilitative messages of importance to adolescents as they negotiate transition to adulthood. Three clinical vign