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.
In Developmental Perspectives in Child Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Bonovitz and Harlem compose an alive, complex portrait of the current field of child psychoanalytic theory and treatment. Noting the original controversial discussions between Anna Freud and Melanie Klein that split the burgeoning field of child psychoanalysis and birthed the Independent Group within the British Psychoanalytic Society, Harlem observes that these early “signifiers” of psychoanalytic clan remain active and valid; nonetheless, their contents have evolved significantly. A far richer understanding of the environmental provisions of earliest life than originally posited, offered by Bowlby, Winnicott, and Bion among others, have deepened these points of view. Moreover, the research of infancy, beautifully detailed in this collection, has vastly expanded the field. The editors also note broader 20th century contributions of postmodernism, gender theory, and nonlinear systems theory. Such shifts in the cultural, scientific, and clinical landscape inspired them to gather an accomplished set of contributors ranging from relational to contemporary Freudian to neo-Kleinian perspectives to present their current thinking on development. This is balanced out with ample case material that not only fleshes out these perspectives but also offers in-depth exploration of varied clinical concerns ranging from the treatment of autism and neglect to the analyst's use of the self.
The contributors' capacities for synthesis is remarkable, making complex ideas accessible to students of psychoanalysis while offering nuanced and new ideas for analysts long engaged in the parsing of theory and technique. Thoughtful, immersive, and highly readable, the collection taken as a whole gives the reader a deep, often moving sense of the shift in psychoanalysis toward greater sensitivity, deeper more immersive analytic listening, and receptivity to the patient's subjectivities as well as our own. Some classical conc