Child and Adolescent Analysis: its significance for Clinical Work with Adults. Edited by Scott Dowling. New York:  Int. Univ. Press. $330.50. Pp.  xi + 232.

This is the sixth in the series of workshop monographs published by the American Psychoanalytic Association. As in previous volumes, there are clinical papers followed by discussion papers, and a concluding chapter by the editor. This volume has a new section in which the authors respond to the discussants. I think this is a valuable addition, which enhances the fresh and lively quality of the book.

Scharfman points out in his introduction that it is commonly accepted that child and adolescent analytic work has had an impact on psychoanalytic conceptualisations and technique, though there have been few papers specifically on this subject. He refers to Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, Margaret Mahler, Erik Erikson, and Peter Blos in particular for their significant contributions to developmental theory. They have focussed our attention on pre-Oedipal development, examining the relationship between environmental and developmental factors in the course of analytic work and observation. It is useful to be reminded of how much these theories are now an integral part of adult analytic technique.

The three papers by child analysts emphasise the opportunity to observe developmental processes in statu nascendi, and the distorting influences of conflict. As an adult analyst, I wonder why we are not more positively encouraged to gain experience in child analysis, recognising the difference between the actual child and the child in the adult. The importance of discontinuities in development, seen more clearly in children, but existing too in adults, is emphasised by Abrahms. Chused focuses on the child analyst learning to listen to different levels of ego-functioning and to understand non-verbal behaviour. Though I think these issues have been written about extensively by adult analysts, particularly in work with borderline patients. (There are references throughout the book to what can be learnt about infantile states of mind in the child and in the borderline and psychotic patient.)

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