Full Description
This important and wide-ranging book explores the world of a child or young person who has been abused or neglected. It seeks to understand their world, to ease the pain from which they suffer, and to heal the wounds that the abuse has left.
Examining how abuse always takes place in the context of relationships, and involves a misuse of power that causes a traumatic overwhelming of the child or adolescent, abuse also evokes strong countertransference. This affects interventions, particularly when clinicians struggle with feelings of which they may feel ashamed. A difficulty in coming to terms with and addressing child abuse relates to unconscious factors which, by freezing the emotional area surrounding the abuse (or by blinding the area of personality), makes some thoughts unthinkable.
Considering traditional and novel ways of helping children who feel they have been maltreated, the book offers suggestions for individual treatment as well as describing the successful work carried out with child refugees. It also offers a glimpse into what child psychoanalysts interpret and do with children who feel a parent hates them.
Contents
About the editors and contributors
Acknowledgements
Series editor foreword
Introduction
FRANCES THOMSON-SALO
PART I Mainly clinical
1 A comprehensive approach to child abuse
JORDI SALA
2 Discussion of Jordi Sala's paper
IRMA BRENMAN PICK
3 Child abuse as confusion of tongues
LUIS JORGE MARTIN CABRÉ
4 Todd: The analysis of a latency-aged boy who self-harmed
MALI A. MANN
5 The abused child - a sad, never-ending story: Some observations on abused children in the current refugee crisis
MARIANNE LEUZINGER-BOHLEBER
6 The making of an abuser
JOHN WOODS
7 The lost child
LAURA TOGNOLI PASQUALI
8 When something that should happen does not: The unwelcome child and his psychic vicissitudes
MASSIMO VIGNA TAGLIANTI
9 May your steel be as sharp as your final no!
GEMMA ZONTINI
PART II Protecting the care systems to prevent burnout
10 All in the same boat: The activity of the Abuse and Ill-Treatment Group
MARIA PIA CONTE AND STEFANO BOMARSI
11 Abused children: reflections on the model
RENATA RIZZITELLI AND CAROLA DEL FAVERO
12 'I am naked, not just barehanded!'
MARIA NACCARI CARLIZZI
13 Abused children, caregivers, psychoanalysts: voices from the groups: Reflections on the model and its use
ANNA MARIA RISSO
14 What happens to pain: The evolution of the request
ELISA ALICE PELLERANO AND IVANA POZZOLI
15 The group is frightened and frightening
CHIARA NAPOLI AND ANNA MARIA RISSO
PART III Legal aspects: Task and role of the judiciary in child abuse
16 Protecting the child and assessing the evidence: Task and role of the judiciary in child abuse
CRISTINA MAGGIA
Index
