“The Goodest of Functions”: The Restoration of Temporality in the Analysis of a Psychotic Child
The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (IF0.089), Pub Date : 2019-01-01, DOI: 10.1080/00797308.2019.1558630
Frederick L. Meisel
ABSTRACT This paper presents the psychoanalysis of a hospitalized psychotic child that validates some current theoretical understanding about primitive, unrepresented states of mind. It highlights the function of fusion as a symbiotic defense against deadness, following the attack on linkage that destroys temporality. It also demonstrates the facility of the transference in play mode to promote internalization in a child walled off from human contact, and then follows the growth and development that ensued.
The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (IF0.089), Pub Date : 2019-01-01, DOI: 10.1080/00797308.2019.1558630
Frederick L. Meisel
ABSTRACT This paper presents the psychoanalysis of a hospitalized psychotic child that validates some current theoretical understanding about primitive, unrepresented states of mind. It highlights the function of fusion as a symbiotic defense against deadness, following the attack on linkage that destroys temporality. It also demonstrates the facility of the transference in play mode to promote internalization in a child walled off from human contact, and then follows the growth and development that ensued.
