[Heidelberger study on psychoanalytic therapy of children and adolescents: methodology].

In the representative studies published so far on the outcome of analytic child psychotherapy (Dührssen 1964; Fonagy and Target 1996) no techniques of treatment were mentioned. The following paper describes in detail the technique of treatment on which the Heidelberg Study "On the Therapeutic Outcome in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy" is based, as it developed from 1975 to 1993 at the Heidelberg Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Starting from Piaget's findings that the cognitive faculties of a child up to the age of 11 completely differ from those of an adult and taking into consideration the cerebral information processing and "the intellect pervadet sensory" (Schopenhauer) it is demonstrated that children take their intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts into analytic play therapy or into role play on analogous levels. Protected by a safe distance from being aware of their conflicts they will on the analogous levels understand, work through, partially solve their conflicts and make use of it in reality without conscious recognition. The term "analogous level" is defined and the manifold possibilities of therapeutic intervention on this level are demonstrated. The efficacy of therapeutic treatment on analogous levels is discussed.