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As summarized by Nick Midgley of the Anna Freud Centre in the book’s foreword, the contribution of this manualized treatment approach for children with externalizing disorders is three-fold. First, it goes beyond a simple checklist of symptoms and focuses on implicit affect regulation as the key to understanding the many disruptive behaviors these children display. Second, and most important, the authors stress the children’s disruptiveness is not simply a set of behaviors but also a communication that needs to be understood. Therapeutic interventions toward understanding their behaviors are linked conceptually to the RFP-C theoretical model. Affect regulation for the child appears by the gradual emergence of a shared understanding of what the behaviors communicate. Third, the manual makes a major contribution by linking the psychodynamic concept of defense mechanisms, such as projection and denial, with the understanding of the hostile and at times violent behavior of these children.
I agree with all of the comments by Midgley and would emphasize several additional observations. The inclusiveness of the theoretical model delineates clear theoretical connections between the newest concepts of neuroscience and developmental theory, placing psychodynamic concepts within a wider framework, highlighting commonalities and distinctive differences between parallel disciplines. Also, with this volume the authors’ intention was to provide a manualized road map for treatment of disruptive children that could be empirically replicated, measured, and assessed. The authors provide several rating scales for this purpose. In addition, the manual is inclusive in its attention to all aspects of the implicated therapeutic relationships, including meetings with the parents, consideration of transference and counter-transference feelings, and how these relationships might develop in the course of treatment.
Clearly, for all of the above reasons this manual is a must-read for experienced