The value of child and adolescent analytic and psychodynamic empirical and clinical findings are underestimated by far too many mental health professionals. There are three areas in our contemporary climate in which the value of child and adolescent analytic principles need to be recognized and studied: clinical work not just with children but also with adults; systematic study of child and adolescent psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy; and the role of child and adolescent psychoanalytic principles in schools and community agencies.
I noted this lack of appreciation of the value of child and adolescent psychoanalysis in a letter to JAPA in 2000 on the exclusion of child psychoanalysis. I documented that there are virtually no references to the child analytic literature in the psychoanalytic debate involving differences between the so-called one-person and two-person psychologies even though when working with children the therapist/analyst is always interacting and reflecting with the child. T.J. Jacobs in 1996, also stated that in working with difficult patients “adult analysts have been slow to incorporate into their treatment…notions derived from understanding development and child analytic technique about the flexible—and creative—use of analytic technique.” This dilemma continues to this date.
In the general mental health field, cognitive techniques with children predominate even though there is extensive clinical experience with psychodynamic psychotherapy, as well as with child and adolescent psychoanalysis, for childhood disorders. However, systematic clinical research is sparse. Over the last two decades there has been a greater call, and therefore progress, for the development of systematic research in child and adolescent analytic and dynamic psychotherapy systematic research.
Finally, both the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) and the Association for Child Psychoanalysis (ACP) have developed awards for excellent work in the community. APsaA, through its Schools Committee, has established the Anna Freud Educational Achievement Award and the ACP has established an Award for Excellence. Both awards are given to a center or program exemplifying the highest level of service and integration of psychoanalytic ideas.
Over the next several issues of TAP, we will include articles describing a variety of programs including empirical studies of psychodynamic treatments, descriptions of child and adolescent analytic studies, and the impact of child and adolescent principles in community and school settings.
In the next issue Sabina Preter, Theodore Shapiro and Barbara Milrod will describe their Manual of Child and Adolescent Anxiety Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (CAPP): a brief psychotherapeutic approach to working psycho dynamically with children ages 8 to 16 years who suffer a range of anxiety disorders.