"The Goodest of Functions": The Restoration of Temporality in the Analysis of a Psychotic Child. Issue 1 (1st January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Meisel, Frederick L.
• Is Part Of: Psychoanalytic study of the child. Volume 72:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 171
• Page End: 189
• Publication Date: 2019-01-01
• Subjects: Child psychosis -- fusion -- symbiosis -- deadness -- temporality -- linkage; Child analysis -- Periodicals; Child Psychiatry; Psychology, Child; Psychoanalysis; Enfants -- Psychanalyse; Child analysis; Psychoanalyse; Kinderen; Kinderanalyse; Aufsatzsammlung; Periodicals; Periodicals; 155.4; 616.89
• DOI: 10.1080/00797308.2019.1558630
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0079-7308

Abstract

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.