The Injured Self: The Psychopathology and Psychotherapy of Developmental Deviations

Author(s) : Dov R. Aleksandrowicz, Author(s) : Malca Aleksandrowicz

Book Details

Publisher : Routledge
Published : 2011
Cover : Paperback
Pages : 272
Category :
Individual Psychotherapy
Catalogue No : 29900
ISBN 13 : 9781855758421
ISBN 10 : 1855758423

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The book examines the clinical implications of innate developmental individuality. The authors present a model of what they call "developmentally informed" therapy, based on the assumption that biologically determined (or co-determined) maladjusted behaviours and deficiencies of ego functions cannot be resolved by interpretation of an unconscious conflict, but need to be "validated", analysed, and integrated with the personality. Several clinical case histories illustrate the authors' approach. The case presentations are followed by a discussion of counselling parents of children with developmental deviations. The authors also discuss the theoretical issues that arise from this and the role of cognition, especially learning, in the therapeutic relationship and the therapeutic process. Finally, the authors present some recent advances in neuro-behavioural sciences which appear relevant to the issues discussed in the book and close with a concluding discussion.

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About the Author(s)
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Reviews and Endorsements

'Dov and Malca Aleksandrowicz have achieved a major synthesis between effects of inborn deviant or delayed neuropsychological functions, on the one hand, and conflict derived determinants of psychosocial development and psychopathology, on the other. Their volume maps out carefully the manifestations of deviant sensory, motor, perceptive, affective and what might be called "effortful control" functions, their impact on the caregiver-infant and parental-child interactions, and the methods for sorting out, in a careful and painstaking diagnostic process, how conflicts and deficits interact and influence each other. Abundant, sophisticated clinical material illustrates the application of this approach to the psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic treatment of these combined psychopathologies. The authors' empathic discussion of the challenging work with both adults and troubled children and their parents should enrich the clinical expertise of all psychodynamic oriented psychotherapists, and expand the realm of contemporary psychoanalytic practice.'
- Otto F. Kernberg, MD, Director, Personality Disorders Institute, The New York Presbyterian Hospital, Payne Whitney Westchester, USA

'This book spans the prejudiced gap between body, mind, and psyche by focusing on developmental deviations and their impact from a combined psychoanalytic, neuropsychological, and developmental perspective. It is a highly informative, richly presented, and integrative effort at understanding the impact of such deviations on self, parents, family, and social constellations. It combines psychoanalytic insight with developmental findings, and offers guidelines for parents, educators, and therapists, who must recognize early limitations and cope with them. It is an invaluable asset for all those charged with caring for the growth and adjustment of infants and youngsters who suffer from these often insufficiently understood causes.'
- H. Shmuel Erlich, Sigmund Freud Professor of Psychoanalysis (Emeritus) and former Director of the Freud Center for Psychoanalytic Study and Research, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

'The Injured Self is the culmination of thirty-five years of scholarly research and builds upon the work of such well-known authorities in the field of infant development as T. Berry Brazelton, Bertrand G. Cramer, Joy D. Osofsky, Daniel Stern, and the earlier work of the Aleksandrowiczs themselves. With exquisite sensitivity, it reminds us of the vulnerability of the infant and of the intransigence of injuries to the self sustained at this time. While written primarily for practitioners in the mental health field, it will serve as an invaluable reference for all parents, teachers, and practitioners in related fields.'
- Sylvia Levine Ginsparg, PhD, Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at St. Louis University Medical School, Missouri, USA, and a psychoanalyst in private practice

About the Author(s)

Dov R. Aleksandrowicz, MD, was the President of the Israeli Psychoanalytic Society, and is a Training and Supervising analyst at the Israel Institute. He is also a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytic Association. He is a recipient of the Gustav Bychowski Prize in Psychoanalysis. He is a founding member of the International Neuro-Psychoanalysis Society, and a co-founder of the Israeli Forum of Neuro-Psychoanalysis. He is the author of numerous professional publications, in five languages.

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Malca K. Aleksandrowicz, PhD, was a pioneer of child development in Israel and a co-founder of the Division of Human Development of the Israeli Psychological Association. She worked in private practice as a psychotherapist and supervisor. Dr Aleksandrowicz died in 1993 in Israel.