Attachment--and loss.

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence — from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, Judith Lewis Herman. New York: Basic Books, 1992. 276 pp. $27.00. ISBN 0-465-08765–5.Shattered Assumptions: Toward A New Psychology of Trauma, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman. New York: The Free Press, 1992, 256 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-02-916015–4.

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence — from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence. By Anna Freud. London: The Hogarth Press, 1937. Pp. x + 196. Price 9s.

Part I of this book describes developmental psychopathology from a historical perspective as an introduction, taking into account the meaning of 'developmental ' . In following chapters the risk factors and protective factors affecting development are discussed on the basis of the results of studies conducted by N. Garmezy and co-workers. The discussion extends to the roots of mental disorders. Part II describes (i) how high-risk children overcome various difficulties caused by their being at high risk, (ii) what kinds of factors provide children at medical risk with resilience, and (iii) the relationship between anxiety in children during that process and their temperamental disposition. Part IlI reviews primarily school-age children in terms of (i) psychosocial resilience and defense mechanisms against risk factors, (ii) the influence of maternal stress on child development, and (iii) acquisition of protective factors against such stress by children. Stress-resistant families and stress-resistant children are examined with regard to how children with risk factors acquire defense mechanisms under the stressful social circumstance these days. This part also includes a description of children's adjustment to their parents ' divorce. Part IV describes developmental psychopathology in adolescence, personality traits in late adolescence, and vulnerability to and resilience against eating disorders which are apt to develop in adolescents. In addition, a developmental psychopathologic approach to the prevention and control of AIDS is conducted. Lastly, Part V describes the relationship between psychopathology and developmental factors in schizophrenia and other mental disorders; (i) how attentional functioning and social behavior in adulthood are influenced by risk factors in infancy; (ii) family relations are included in the risk factors for mental disorders in adulthood; (iii) genetic risk is usually influenced by high risk factors and is usually greater than environmental risk, but in the actual onset of mental disorders the process level of these risks is important; (iv) stress in relations between parents and children, in particular, is greatly implicated in psychopathology. The past studies carried out by N. Garmezy and co-workers and the results obtained by reviewing those studies are of great value. 1 recommend this book; it provides an approach to the development which shows that developmental risk influences disorders and symptoms in adulthood. This book gives us an opportunity to learn and examine the medical contribution of such an approach.

Risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology

In Minefields in Their Hearts multiple authors take us places we don't want to go, describe why little research exists on massive assaults on children, and out-line our need to address our own countertransference. Topics vary from World War II Holocaust survivors to third world civil wars and chronic inner-city violence in the United States. Chapters address political and ethical questions avoided in traditional office work. Intervention addresses the need for social change, with direction guided by the needs of the victims and their culture. Unique experiences in impoverished countries give us special lessons. Arroyo and Eth describe steps to address goals for post-traumatic stress disorder intervention: resuming normal routines, critical incident debriefing for children and caretakers, education about stress reactions, and identification of those in need of more intervention. The goals translate for inner-city violence in countries with long-term resources, while much of this book addresses severe violence in

Minefields in Their Hearts: The Mental Health of Children in War and Communal Violence

The paper discusses psychoanalysis as a mutual exchange between the analyst and analysand. A number of questions are raised: What was Ferenczi's and the early psychoanalysts' contribution to the interpersonal relational dynamics of psychoanalytic treatment? Why did countertransference become an indispensable tool in relationship‐based psychoanalysis? Why is the transference‐countertransference dynamic seen as a special dialogue between the analyst and analysand? What was Ferenczi's paradigm shift in the trauma theory? How did he combine the object relation approach with Freud's original trauma theory? The paper illustrates through some case study vignettes the intersubjective and intrapsychic dynamic in the process of traumatization. We can look at countertransference as an indicator of the patient's basic interpersonal experiences and traumas. Finally the paper discusses countertransference in the light of attachment theory, connecting the early initiatives of inter‐relational approaches in psychoanalysi...

Psychoanalysis is a two‐way street

How did psychoanalysis find its way from “traumatic progression” or “precocious maturity,” as described by Ferenczi at the beginning of the 1930s with its background in the “wise baby” phenomenon, to research on resilience? The paper focuses on psychoanalytic approaches to resilience. What was the contribution of ego psychology, object relations and attachment theories, self-psychology, and group experiences to understanding resilience? Results concerning resilience are based on longitudinal studies of early hospitalized or traumatized but “resilient children,” child survivors of genocides, wars, and communal violence, populations of children and adult refugees. The paper shows the different approaches to resilience, from factoral components to views of structures and processes, including the new ideas that place resilience and depletion as phenomena at the two ends of the same continuity of structural dimensions: psychobiological and object relational.

Judit Mészáros

Papers

Psychoanalysis is a two‐way street

Ferenczi's “wise baby” phenomenon and resilience