Description
Book SynopsisThe field of child and adolescent psychotherapy is still relatively young and its short history has resulted in a paucity of mental health services for this neglected group. There is a distinct lack of research, evidence and treatment facilities, and yet in order to produce mentally healthy, undamaged adults of the future, this must surely be one area to concentrate resources on.The Cassel Hospital, and this book in particular, seek to redress the balance, and consequently, the chapters in this book follow a diverse path, on subjects ranging from Munchhausen Syndrome by proxy, to abuse within the home, relations within families and borderline adolescents. Various clinical cases are described in this much-needed volume that invites the reader to experience and learn from the life in a hospital that is often seen as the "last resort" of treament for many children and adolescents.The Internal and External Worlds of Children and Adolescents provides a thoughtful perspective on mental health services for one of the most neglected groups in society - our children and adolescents.
Trade Review'The Cassel Hospital offers a very different kind of treatment from that provided by "traditional" psychiatry. The stakes are high, and this can create anxiety and ambivalence about the work in staff and feelings of anger, hope, and hopelessness in the patients. The chapters in this Monograph give testimony to these feelings and also explore how they can be worked with and contained in the hospital community structures.'- Lesley Day from her Introduction
Table of ContentsIntroduction: public and private dimensions of therapeutic work with children and adolescents -- The inpatient psychotherapy of a mother and child at the Cassel Hospital: a case of Munchhausen syndrome by proxy -- Poison glue: the child's experience of Munchhausen syndrome by proxy -- Psychoanalytic aspects of inpatient treatment of abused children -- School children in the Cassel community: discovering a place in which to live and learn -- Adolescence: a transitory world -- The darkling plain: the inpatient treatment of a severely disturbed borderline adolescent -- The containment of borderline adolescents
