Main description:

This important and wide-ranging book explores the world of a child or young person who has been abused or neglected. It seeks to understand their world, to ease the pain from which they suffer, and to heal the wounds that the abuse has left.

Examining how abuse always takes place in the context of relationships, and involves a misuse of power that causes a traumatic overwhelming of the child or adolescent, abuse also evokes strong countertransference. This affects interventions, particularly when clinicians struggle with feelings of which they may feel ashamed. A difficulty in coming to terms with and addressing child abuse relates to unconscious factors which, by freezing the emotional area surrounding the abuse (or by blinding the area of personality), makes some thoughts unthinkable.

Considering traditional and novel ways of helping children who feel they have been maltreated, the book offers suggestions for individual treatment as well as describing the successful work carried out with child refugees. It also offers a glimpse into what child psychoanalysts interpret and do with children who feel a parent hates them.

Contents:

About the editors and contributors

Acknowledgements

Series editor foreword

Introduction

FRANCES THOMSON-SALO

PART I Mainly clinical

1 A comprehensive approach to child abuse

JORDI SALA

2 Discussion of Jordi Sala's paper

IRMA BRENMAN PICK

3 Child abuse as confusion of tongues

LUIS JORGE MARTIN CABRE

4 Todd: The analysis of a latency-aged boy who self-harmed

MALI A. MANN

5 The abused child - a sad, never-ending story: Some observations on abused children in the current refugee crisis

MARIANNE LEUZINGER-BOHLEBER

6 The making of an abuser

JOHN WOODS

7 The lost child

LAURA TOGNOLI PASQUALI

8 When something that should happen does not: The unwelcome child and his psychic vicissitudes

MASSIMO VIGNA TAGLIANTI

9 May your steel be as sharp as your final no!

GEMMA ZONTINI

PART II Protecting the care systems to prevent burnout

10 All in the same boat: The activity of the Abuse and Ill-Treatment Group

MARIA PIA CONTE AND STEFANO BOMARSI

11 Abused children: reflections on the model

RENATA RIZZITELLI AND CAROLA DEL FAVERO

12 'I am naked, not just barehanded!'

MARIA NACCARI CARLIZZI

13 Abused children, caregivers, psychoanalysts: voices from the groups: Reflections on the model and its use

ANNA MARIA RISSO

14 What happens to pain: The evolution of the request

ELISA ALICE PELLERANO AND IVANA POZZOLI

15 The group is frightened and frightening

CHIARA NAPOLI AND ANNA MARIA RISSO

PART III Legal aspects: Task and role of the judiciary in child abuse

16 Protecting the child and assessing the evidence: Task and role of the judiciary in child abuse

CRISTINA MAGGIA

Index