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I will offer a conceptual model of the development of the mind derived from work with children that can prove useful in treating adults as well as young people. The term conceptual model implies an abstract rather than a concrete scheme. Since the abstract is always more difficult to assimilate than the concrete, I will start with a brief outline of what follows in the hope of easing the task of comprehension.
It is useful to think of the development of the mind in at least two ways. First, the mind may be considered from a longitudinal perspective as the emergence of specific functions within significant areas over time. Three particular areas deserve special attention: the drives, object relations, and the ego (including its equipment). Second, the mind can be understood from a cross-sectional approach, as a developing sequence of plateus that also evolve over time. These plateaus of development not only bring these three designated areas together, but also introduce novelties while doing so. The first point of view, the longitudinal, permits a focus upon functions of the mind from what is customarily understood by the term developmental lines; for example, the evolving sequences of defenses or of