What Can the Matter Be?

by Emanuel, Louise; Bradley, Elizabeth; Rustin, Margaret

• ISBN13: 9781855753402
• ISBN10: 1855753405
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-30
• Publisher: KARNAC BOOKS

Summary

This volume is the result of over twenty years of therapeutic interventions with families within the Tavistock Clinic's Under Fives Service. It describes in detail the process of understanding young children's communications and behavior and the dynamics of family relationships within the consulting room in a lively, accessible style. It covers common themes in work with young children such as disruptive, angry behavior, separation and sleep difficulties, and problems in the parent/couple relationship. This book is essential reading for all early years professionals hoping to gain a greater understanding of the technique, observational skills and theory which underlie a psychodynamic approach to work with the under fives.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction	p. 1
Theory and Practice
Early developments	p. 11
Brief work with parents of infants	p. 15
The relation of infant observation to clinical practice in an under-fives counselling service	p. 38
Infant-parent psychotherapy: Selma Fraiberg's contribution to understanding the past in the present	p. 54
Later developments	p. 67
The process of change in under-fives work	p. 69
A slow unfolding - at double speed: therapeutic interventions with parents and their young children	p. 81
A sinking heart: whose problem is it? Under-fives work in the surgery of a general practitioner	p. 99
Common Themes in Work With Under Fives
Challenging and disruptive behaviour	p. 117
Anger between children and parents: how can we help?	p. 121
Disruptive and distressed toddlers: the impact of undetected maternal depression on infants and young children	p. 136
Where the wild things are: tantrums and behaviour problems in two under-fives boys	p. 151
The parent couple and oedipal issues	p. 167
Locating the ghost in the nursery: the importance of the parental couple	p. 171
Father "there and not there": the concept of a "united couple" in families with unstable partnerships	p. 187
Oedipal issues in under-fives families: creating a space for thinking	p. 200
Separation and loss; weaning and growth	p. 211
Spanning presence and absence: separation anxiety in the early years	p. 215
Sleeping and feeding problems: attunement and daring to be different	p. 237
Holding the balance: life and death in the early years	p. 254
Glossary	p. 269
References	p. 273
Index	p. 283
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