Contributions from Analytic Work with Children and Adolescents

From the Editors

Jackie Gotthold and Rosalind Chaplin Kindler

Regular readers of this column will note the new title for this section on child work in the Newsletter. We decided that since we have always followed a developmental approach to our work with children, so it should be with the child segment of the newsletter. Thus came the decision that it was time to allow the children's section to emerge from the "corner", spread its wings, explore a wider arena of experience, and try a new identity as an independent centre of initiative. It's been heartbreaking for we co-editors to have to let go of our own selfobject needs and wishes to keep our children's section close, safely tucked up in the corner under our care, but we have every confidence in its capacity to successfully differentiate and find its way independently around the Newsletter, connecting competently with our readers.

The two articles that we present appear to be 'child' articles, yet when considered in a wider lens they point toward wider reaching applications. Roger Segalla summarizes Amy Joelson's paper, "A Girl, Her Mother and The Analyst: A Study of Self and Interactive Regulation," which was presented at this past year's International Conference on the Psychology of the Self. He outlines some of the contemporary conceptual points that Ms. Joelson applies to a child treatment case that involves the mother in a session. The complexities of "shifting dyadic configurations" in terms of self and interactive regulation in the treatment process are noted by Ms. Joelson. Roger Segalla suggests that this conceptualization is applicable to triadic work such as in couples treatment.

In the second article, Amy Eldridge presents us with a self psychological understanding of the ever complex and daunting task of the analyst's work with parents of child patients. She, too, notes a dynamic and interactive model whereby the selfstate of the parents is affected by the response of the child, just as the development of the child is affected by the parents' selfstate. Again, we can see how the work with children can serve as an ideal vantage point to explore the complexities of the treatment process.

We hope these articles expand your horizons.

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