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This paper describes the analytic treatment of a boy, Harold, who was suffering from a disabling neurosis when he came for treatment at the age of thirteen years and eight months. The special value of the case derives from the fact that the patient had not yet entered adolescence when he began treatment, so that it was possible to follow his progressive development into this maturational phase in the closest possible way. In addition, other features of the case gave it more than usual interest; these features include: an unusual symptomatology; Harold's extraordinary ability to verbalize his thoughts and feelings; the fact that little modification of psychoanalytic technique was needed to carry out the treatment; and, finally, the material gathered in the analysis throws light on two areas of special interest in the study of adolescent patients, namely, the formation of the therapeutic alliance and the loosening of the libidinal ties to the parents.
In this paper I will report not only the communication of the patient in detail, but will also give more attention than is perhaps usual to verbatim accounts of the interpretations I gave. I do this partly because it is a habit acquired during training in the Hampstead Child-Therapy Course (especially from work on the Hampstead Index), but mainly out of the conviction that increased understanding