François Marty

DRAWING ON PSYCHOANALYTIC PEDAGOGY: THE INFLUENCE OF AUGUST AICHHORN ON THE PSYCHOTHERAPY OF ADOLESCENTS

The authors locate August Aichhorn’s pioneering ideas about the psychodynamics and psychotherapy of adolescents in the context of psychoanalytic pedagogy in Europe in the 1920s and ′30s. Strongly influenced by Freud’s discoveries and theory, Aichhorn was himself a major influence on the work of Anna Freud and of many other child and adolescent psychoanalytic theoreticians, including Spitz, Mahler, Eissler, Erikson, and Blos. His technique drew heavily on the element of surprise and on the adolescent patient’s identification with the analyst, as well as on the use of humor and empathy in treatment. The authors utilize brief vignettes from Aichhorn’s descriptions of his practice to illustrate his unique clinical style.

Restoring psychic containers of identity after a suicide attempt in adolescence.

Suicidal acts during adolescence reveal narcissistic vulnerabilities. The authors observation concerns the quality of ego boundaries, as well as their evolution. Longitudinal studies were conducted on the basis of interviews and projective tests performed within 15 days after the suicide attempt and once again the following year. The quantitative analyses of Fisher and Clevelands Barrier/Penetration scores on the Rorschach show the evolution of identity mechanisms. The results underscore the importance of restoring psychic containers of identity.

A skin on fire: The link between thermal metaphors and early trauma in a case of pedophilia

On the basis of excerpts from the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of an adult patient convicted of child abuse, the authors suggest the hypothesis that the thermal metaphors that repeatedly appear in the patients discourse are the marks of early psycho-bodily trauma. These are traces of the patients burning incestuous relationship with his mother, which led to early fusion of his physical and psychic skins. In this clinical work the authors include the dynamics of transference.

When Assessing Intra-Familial Relationships, Are Sociologists, Psychoanalysts and Psychiatrists Really Considering Different Constructs? An Empirical Study.

This paper aimed to look for the existence of a common core when envisaging intra-familial interactions as perceived by adolescents, which could be shared by sociology, psychoanalysis and child and adolescent psychiatry. An empirical study based on a mixed-method design collected the responses of 194 adolescents to the instruction “In the next half hour, would you please write as freely as you wish about your relationships in your family, explaining how things are”. All answers were then analyzed and 18 dimensions related to 3 different theoretical frameworks were rated blind using numerical scores by two independent raters from each discipline. Inter-rater reliability was good. A parallel analysis evidenced a strong underlying factor explaining a large amount of variance (>50%). This factor is bipolar, it reflects the level of positivity/negativity in the adolescent’s point of view concerning his/her intra-familial relationships. A second factor can marginally be considered (10% of the variance). The 2-factor analysis found one factor related to positive feelings and the other to negative feelings. This finding of unidimensionality supports family study as an intervention science.