Severe Emotional Disturbance in Children and Adolescents conveys the experiences of severely emotionally disturbed children in detailed accounts of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and explores the life and death struggles against severe self-harm to body and mind by the most distressed sections of adolescents. Illustrated by clinical material, chapters cover subjects including:

* the inpatient therapeutic setting

* family rehabilitation after physical, sexual and emotional abuse

* the adoptive father

* work with adolescent inpatients with spina bifida

* assessment, treatment and clinical management of adolescent disturbance.

Severe Emotional Disturbance in Children and Adolescents underlines the value of intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy as a coherent method of treatment in even the most severe cases of emotional disturbance. Psychotherapists, mental health workers, and social workers will find it a valuable resource for difficult work in a variety of contexts.