[Listening to children with trisomy 21 and their parents. Psychological aspects]

Abstract

A psychoanalyst who listens to a Down syndrome child can discover how this disability, which makes the child seem somewhat strange, is integrated into the development of the personality by non-specific psychic processes similar to those at work in other children. This can occur only if the reciprocal identification between parents and child is not made impossible by the traumatic significance of the handicap. Early therapy can restore a narcissistically positive image of the child and free the family dynamics previously paralyzed around the handicap. The author reports on the two cases that prompted these considerations: the psychotherapy of a Down syndrome girl between 5 and 7 years of age and sessions with the mother of a 5-year old Down syndrome boy.