Parents and their child--and the analyst in the middle.

Full Abstract

The first part of this paper explains how the transgenerational mandate influences the mental activity of the child. When a child acts the denied suffering of the parental couple, the analyst risks being imprisoned by the transgenerational mandate. Frequently the analyst is unconsciously asked by the parents to cure without curing because the child's psychological birth, still in the making, threatens the defensive equilibrium of the parents. The analyst is thus caught between the parents and the child and must find his/her own way forward in order to free the child from the burden of the mandate. In the second part of the paper, an analysis of a 5-year-old child is presented. The author shows how a transgenerational mandate may hold a traumatic potential because it can impair heavily the child's capacity to think. The author also describes the way in which she works with the parents and how she manages the setting and the style of the interpretation. She insists in particular on the need to sustain the child's perceptions in order to gradually allow the child to take roots in his/her experiences and therefore develop his/her own identity.

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Author information

Author/s: Badoni, Marta (M);

Affiliation: Via Cosimo del Fante 3, 20122 Milano, Italy. marta.badoni(-atsign-)iol.it

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Case Reports; Journal Article

Journal: The International journal of psycho-analysis (Int J Psychoanal), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Oct; vol 83 (issue Pt 5) : pp 1111-31

Dates: Created 2002/11/12; Completed 2003/05/02; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12427268, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Male
Mental Disorders - psychology; therapy
Parent-Child Relations
Professional-Family Relations
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic Therapy

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