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It was thought better to leave the discussion of the similarities and differences between adult and child analysis until our observations on the analytical process with children had been laid before the reader, trusting that preconceptions in his mind would not prevent his persevering even if he lacks experience of child analysis. Perhaps no better way of introducing a discussion of this present topic could be found than case material dealing with the transition of method with pubertal children. Anyone who has started an analysis with a pubertal or adolescent child knows how long it takes before a psychotherapeutic process gives way to a truly analytical one. The analyst is confronted with all the limitations of child analysis regarding motivation and responsibility, without the advantages of play technique with its naivety of communication.
It is a quite different situation with a child who has been in analysis for some years of the latency period and in this context meets the mental and physical changes of puberty. At such a time we can see suspended before our eyes the two techniques, in oscillation and in competition with one another.
The events described cover the six months up to the onset of menstruation. This period coincided with the transition from playroom to couch at the time surrounding the child's 11th birthday, toward the end of the 4th year of an analysis which had been instituted for complaints of learning inhibition, accident proneness, screaming fits and pathologically intense jealousy of siblings.
Throughout the treatment it was characteristic of this child to have periods of work and progress followed by periods of