You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
As the dust settles in one’s mind (and one’s life) when reaching the point of qualification, what becomes clear is the difficulty of putting into words quite what one has learned, at least in the short-term. Seminars, supervision experiences, clinical papers and research activities all become a blur; a tangled mess that will hopefully unravel itself as agency and freedom are slowly reclaimed. That’s not to be pejorative – like a democracy, a training demands a partial sacrifice of both, made in good faith. Some readings, however, I already find can stick with you, especially those you found helpful in your clumsy clinical toddling.
For example, I can still recall my first reading of Moses and Eglé Laufer’s book ‘Adolescence and developmental breakdown’ (Laufer & Laufer, 1984), which was mentioned by respected tutors as an important scholarly work and seemed to fit my own theoretical leanings. I remember finding it illuminating, particularly the interweaving of early development, the reality of the maturing body in puberty, and the potent postulates around fantasy life in adolescence. I also felt its core premise, that psychological distress in adolescence could emulate severe psychiatric disturbance but was not necessarily bound to such a prognostic fate, to be sophisticated, hopeful, and potentially destigmatising. It settled in my mind as something to play with in private when sharing in the troubles of young people I saw, and a helpful viewpoint to bring to consultations with fellow CAMHS clinicians who were confounded by psychotic-like aspects in the presentation of their patients.
It is likely due to this beneficent function the book had for my nascent clinical activities that I also remember reaching a chapter entitled ‘Developmental foreclosure’, where the analysis of a young gay man was discussed. Eighteen-year-old ‘David’s’ plight certainly made the case for someone who could benefit from psychoanalytic psychotherapy – severely depressed, living an unfulfilli