[Involving parents in child psychoanalytic psychotherapy]

Abstract

Contacts with parents or other care giving persons accompanying child psychotherapy necessarily result from the emotional and material dependency of the child or adolescent. The professional guidelines for the therapeutic work with parents are contradictory and confusing. Experts' concepts are complex and inconsistent. Considering the immense impact of environmental influences on the development of children and adolescents a precise conceptualisation of this elementary part of therapy is needed in order to be able to influence the parental involvement in the disorder of the child. Three different kinds of parental involvement may be differentiated: 1. parental misunderstanding about what is beneficial for the development of the child, 2. parental involvement resulting from unconscious conflicts and 3. disturbances resulting from structural immaturity of the care giving persons. In regard of these different forms of parental involvement therapeutic aims and options for interventions are delineated.