“In this paper I use extracts from the clinical encounter with a child, who started a four- year analysis just before her 7th birthday, to illustrate the painful struggles in her inner world. The external world had presented adults who behaved so inconsistently and unpredictably that the child was confused between pretend and genuine feelings. The struggles came alive in moving ways in the to and fro of the transference and countertransference and were often dramatized in the child’s relationship to and with her body.

In child analysis there is not infrequently bodily contact with the analyst, conveying a great deal of communication and meaning. Sometimes it seemed urgent for the child to use parts of her own and the analyst’s body as the only available route both to deal with and communicate her internal reality. I draw your attention to this aspect of the analysis particularly in relation to the risk of consolidation of perverse structures and defences into adult life."

Presented and Discussed by:

Bernard Roberts, is an Adult and Child Analyst and Training Analyst of The British Psychoanalytical Society. He is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Brent Centre for Young People. He trained at the Cassel Hospital and The Tavistock Clinic. In his NHS career he was Medical Director of Kingston and District Community NHS Trust and Lead Psychotherapist at Central North West London Foundation NHS Trust. He works in full-time private analytic practice.

Thursday 3rd April 2025

7.30pm Adelaide, South Australia

Online Via Zoom

Cost: $90

NOTE: This talk will not be recorded & registrations close on 26th March 2025