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.
THIS ARTICLE ATTEMPTS TO DESCRIBE AND CLARIFY A CERTAIN RELAtionship that may develop between abused children referred for residential treatment and the treatment staff. An understanding of this relationship with its distinct stages and phases can obviate additional traumas in an abused child's development.
The object relations that develop between therapists and patients are known to be exceedingly complex, are based on many processes, some of which contradict one another, and undergo many transformations. In this study I intend to illustrate one process only—"the golden fantasy"—and to follow its expression, the changes it undergoes, and how it manifests itself during the various stages of treatment of the abused children, on the one hand, and in the care workers, on the other.
The "golden fantasy" is awakened in the abused child and his care workers simultaneously at the outset of the therapeutic process. As it proceeds, however, a sharp break in the fantasy takes place, often resulting in a premature disruption of the therapeutic process.
I use the term "golden fantasy" essentially as it was described and explicated by Sydney Smith (1977):
… it is the wish to have all of one's needs met in a relationship hallowed by perfection … it is always passive, always tied to the conviction that somewhere in that great, unbounded expanse called the world is a person