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Echoes of Childhood: The Foundational Role of Child Analysis in Adult Analytic Work

Editor : Caroline M. Sehon

Reviews and Endorsements

This theoretically and clinically rich book is of enormous importance for a vital topic in psychoanalysis: the contributions collected in it show in a very personal way how, through personal experiences of child analysis and the psychoanalyst's attention to pre- and extra-linguistic forms of communication, the scope and effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy and psychoanalysis for patients of all ages can be expanded. In addition to the illuminating theoretical foundation, the excellent case reports with their detailed descriptions of the course of treatment and several verbatim transcripts are particularly helpful to psychoanalysts and therapists who work exclusively with adults, enabling them to discover the specific value of child analytic experience and to use it in their own psychoanalytic work. The various contributions repeatedly illustrate in a touching way that a profound knowledge of child psychological development and experience gained from child analysis increase the analyst’s and therapist’s ability to bring about lasting psychological change, even in cases of severe trauma and developmental disorders. This has consequences for psychoanalytic training, because after reading this book, it becomes clear how much the inclusion of a child analytic perspective trains the ability to listen, understand, and speak in a way that is emotionally meaningful in psychoanalysis. But, as we know, the process of learning never stops. Therefore, this book is suitable for therapists- and analysts-in-training, as well as for therapists and analysts at every career stage. The book helps to keep alive the productive childlike urge for further knowledge about oneself and the world, even when working with adults, and it is this focus on living emotional knowledge that makes this book relevant for the present and future of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy.
Dr. med. Heribert Blass, President, International Psychoanalytical Association

Caroline Sehon’s edited collection is a generous, innovative, and open-minded exploration that thoughtfully engages with both clinical and conceptual psychoanalysis throughout the life span. Drawing on more than a decade of ongoing discussions among child analysts at meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the book underscores the enduring importance of childhood experiences in shaping development. It vitalizes the concept of the child within the adult by vividly tracing the infantile threads across the life span, and it demonstrates the clinical necessity of listening to nonverbal communications where traces of the infantile find expression. Sehon’s organization of this book is masterly, allowing for both an immediate and a reflective reading experience. As I read, I felt invited into a dialogue with the contributors, who pause to wonder and pose questions about the different ways we might interpret the clinical encounter. A wonderfully rich and engaging volume, it is essential for practicing psychoanalysts and psychotherapists and stands out as an indispensable teaching resource.
Louise Gyler, PhD, President, Asia-Pacific Psychoanalytic Confederation

This inspiring volume demonstrates with clarity and compassion how a child analytic perspective offers unparalleled access to the adult mind. By attuning us to the “child within,” it enriches our capacity to listen beyond words, contain primitive states, and engage with the most vulnerable aspects of the psyche. The editor and contributors are to be commended for bringing together their profound clinical wisdom, reminding us that child analysis is not a narrow specialty but a vital foundation for analytic work across the life span.
Alessandra Lemma, Fellow, British Psychoanalytical Society; Visiting Professor, Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London and Consultant, Anna Freud Centre

This thoughtfully edited book meets a longstanding need in psychoanalysis: to demonstrate that child analytic work and thinking is something that all analysts should be exposed to. The last attempt to do so occurred thirty-five years ago and has been remarkably unsuccessful in altering the longstanding biases of those who work only with adults that child analysis is completely irrelevant for them. Child and adolescent analysis have occupied the role of stepchild in psychoanalysis since its inception. Lip service gets paid for the idea that psychoanalysis is a developmental psychology without much interest in learning about development or treatment of young children by analysts of adults. As a result, those who only treat adults lose the technical flexibility and insights that experience with children brings to our field.

For over a decade, both the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) and the International Psychoanalytical Association have encouraged psychoanalytic institutes to have integrated child and adult curricula, including graduation requirements. Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick have advocated training “life-cycle psychoanalysts” who work with patients from all developmental stages. Others have illustrated that there is just one psychoanalytic process that characterizes both child and adult treatment with certain technical differences. Despite these innovative approaches and ideas, there remains great resistance to including child analytic and developmental literature and ideas in all psychoanalytic courses. All too often, candidates who work with adults only complain that such material is irrelevant. Faculty complain that they do not feel qualified to teach it or that it takes space away from other, more important content.

This volume by Caroline Sehon will prove a crucial counterpoint to these misguided resistances. Based on a longstanding discussion group at the APsA annual meetings that she chairs with Virginia Unger, Dr. Sehon offers us fascinating and illuminating clinical material and discussions of it by a range of experienced and renowned child analysts. For example, Rex McGehee and Ted Jacobs articulately show how David Scharff’s analysis of an obsessional latency-aged girl offers useful insights into obsessional issues in adult patients. Jill Scharff is equally articulate in discussing Dr. Sehon’s example of countertransference with an adolescent patient as she demonstrates that being aware of it can help the analyst of adults to “live in their body as a container for the unspoken, repressed, fragmented, and somatized representation of … unbearable reality.” The way in which working with children can sensitize analysts of adults to the importance of nonverbal communication is also emphasized in a chapter by Virginia Unger and Jill Scharff.

I urge all psychoanalytically oriented clinicians to study this book carefully. No matter what aged patients you work with, the insights offered in this book, using detailed clinical material, will be useful.’
Alan Sugarman, PhD, Inaugural Head, Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Department (American Psychoanalytic Association)