Journal on Developmental Disabilities
Le journal sur les handicaps du développement

Abstract

In the treatment of severely disturbed children and their families, the key words now are integration and cooperation in the gathering of knowledge and provision of services. Biological, systemic/social, and psychodynamic schools of thought are approaching some agreement. Outside of academic settings, those of us on the "front lines" must use all of our knowledge, and adapt quickly, even as we experience the trauma of the child and family.

Findings in the neurosciences in the past few years have shown us how the brain is, indeed, in part socially constructed, and have supported decades of careful clinical observation and treatment based on the psychoanalytic method. Historically, this method emphasizes all data, including not just those that fit a particular theory or trend. Like any other approach, it can be misapplied. At its best, it informs and guides our treatment of the child within the matrix of relationships in the family and in the larger social sphere.

Too often, such loftier, long-term goals give way to the pressure for the quick, short-term "kick" to the system. For the medical practitioner, this can lead to brief "trials" of a series of medications under otherwise uncontrolled conditions that are less than optimal for safety and objectivity.

download >>