Los hechos traumáticos reales en el análisis de niños

Abstract

The relation with parents offers special difficulties to the child analyst. There are, in the diverse psychoanalytical schools, different criteria about what kind of a relation should be established with the parents. In this essay, Melanie Klein’s principles are followed. She remarks the necessity of considering all the problems regarding the treatment directly with the child, such as one does in the analysis of adults. A case of a three-year old girl, whose analysis was following a normal course until the holidays arrived, is presented. At this moment, external economical reasons threatened the continuity of the analysis. These difficulties were solved by the psychoanalyst together with the parents but were not talked over with the child directly. This external event brought about a considerable increase of the depressive anxieties due to the holidays and their resolution was impossible until this external event was introduced in the interpretation. Play sessions are described where the phantasies this event had re - enacted in the child and the effect it had on the transference relation with her analyst are clearly revealed. A further real traumatic event is considered: the mother’s pregnancy and its consequences for the patient in what regards the mobilization of inner anxieties are shown. Following conclusions are established: 1) The analyst - patient relation must be respected in child analysis exactly in the same way as if they were adult patients. 2) Traumatic external events act in the sense of reinforcing or weakening- the underlying- anxieties which emanate from inner conflicts.