Translating Child Analysis From the Playroom To the Classroom: Opportunities and Choices

Abstract

Over the years, psychoanalysts and educators have made efforts to meld a psychoanalytic orientation with the education of young children. The resulting programs have variously been called psychoanalytic nurseries, therapeutic nurseries, therapeutic preschools, or psychoanalytic early childhood programs. The methodology of the application or integration of psychoanalysis with the education of young children has received relatively little attention. After a brief historical review of the application of psychoanalysis to helping children in group educational settings, a number of features common to programs integrating psychoanalysis and early childhood education are described. A specimen program is next presented in which an application of psychoanalysis is used to assist children whose development is proceeding in a psychopathological direction. Also demonstrated are various ways in which psychoanalysis may be adapted to early childhood programs, some options involved in this modification, and the capacity, realized and potential, for work within a therapeutic nursery to expand the field of inquiry and the therapeutic action of child analysis as conducted within a traditional framework.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrams, S. , (1990). The psychoanalytic process: The developmental and the integrative. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 59:650—677.

——— & Solnit, A. (1998). Coordinating developmental and psychoanalytic processes: Conceptualizing technique. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 46:85—103.

Aichhorn, A. (1925). Wayward Youth. New York: Viking, 1935.

Emde, R. (1988). Development terminable and interminable: I. Innate and motivational factors from infancy. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 69:23—42.

Escalona, S. (1968). The Roots of Individuality. Chicago: Aldine.

Freud, A. (1965). Normality and Pathology in Childhood: Assessments of Development. New York: International Universities Press.

——— & Burlingham, D. (1973). Infants without Families. Reports on the Hampstead Nurseries 1939—1949. New York: International Universities Press.

Furman, R.A. , & Katan, A. (1969). The Therapeutic Nursery School. New York: International Universities Press.

Geissmann, C. , & Geissmann, P. (1998). A History of Child Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.

10.

Greenspan, S.I. (1981). Psychopathology and Adaptation in Infancy and Early Childhood: Principles of Clinical Diagnosis and Preventive Intervention . New York: International Universities Press.

11.

——— (1988). The development of the ego: Insights from clinical work with infants and young children. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 36(Suppl.):3—55.

12.

——— (1992). Infancy and Early Childhood. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.

13.

Katan, A. (1961). Some thoughts about the role of verbalization in early childhood. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 16:184—188.

14.

Kernberg, O.F. (1975). Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism . New York: Aronson.

15.

Kliman, G. (1975). Analyst in the nursery—experimental application of child analytic techniques in a therapeutic nursery: The Cornerstone Method . Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 30:477—510.

16.

Migden, S. (1998). Dyslexia and self-control: An ego psychoanalytic perspective. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 53:282—289.

17.

Miller, M.A. (1998). Freud and the Bolsheviks. New Haven: Yale University Press.

18.

National Center For Infants, Toddlers, And Families (1994). Diagnostic classification: 0—3. Washington, DC.

19.

Rosenblitt, D. (1996). States of overstimulation in early childhood. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 51:542—561.

20.

Sander, L. (1962). Issues in early mother-child interaction. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 1:141—166.

21.

Shonkoff, J. , & Phillips, D. , Eds. (2000). From Neurons to Neighborhoods. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

22.

Solnit, A. (1987). A psychoanalytic view of play. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 42:205—219.

23.

Zelman, A. , Ed. (1996). Early Intervention with High-Risk Children: Freeing Prisoners of Circumstance. Northvale, NJ: Aronson.