Analytic Engagements with Adolescents

ISBN: 0815383231

Author: Brady, Mary T.

Condition: New

In Analytic Engagements with Adolescents,Mary T. Brady takes on the intensity and 'heat' of adolescent psychoanalytic treatment.She is a guide in the distinctive challenges of work with adolescents. The intensity of this work manifests in various ways; the heightened importance of body issues and related transference and countertransference, the subversiveness of risk-taking behavior and the rejection and rebellion against authority, and the effects of parental response and family dynamics.Adolescence is a period when 'things happen': first wet dreams, first menstruation, first romance. Nascent sexuality comes directly into the field as the adolescent is confronted with new bodily experiences. Subversiveness is integral to the adolescents development; parents (and analysts) are overthrown as the adolescent questions the status quo and experiments with new capacities and desires. Drawn into the adolescents turbulence, Bions concept of 'thinking under fire' is shown to be vital to the analysts engagement. Bions group theory here informs Bradys immediate experience of the interaction of individual and family dynamics.The voices of Bradys adolescent patients and her dynamic involvement with them will help the clinician to be open to the 'hot' moments of their analytic work. Drawing on Bions thinking and her own extensive experience with adolescents, Brady offers an essential guide to the difficulties and challenges encountered when working with this patient group. She provides practical suggestions for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists working in this area.