The impact of parental interventions on the analysis of a 5-year-old boy. A clinical account.

In this paper, the author describes the pressure put on the analysis of a 5-year-old boy by his parents, who repeatedly tried to terminate the analysis soon after it had started. Detailed clinical material illustrates the impact this pressure had on the analyst and the boy, including a considerable conflict of loyalty between his parents and the analyst and being overwhelmed by intolerable feelings of violence and persecution. The clinical account also shows how this boy struggled to cope with feelings of destructiveness, badness and being unwanted and with intense pressures and demands placed on him by his parents to grow up, to abandon his infantile self and to control his impulses, particularly his anger. Despite the turbulence of the analysis, he was able to make some moves in the direction of tolerating his feelings of guilt and containing his destructiveness. The discussion focuses on the role of parents in child analysis: their concerns and anxieties, the impact they can have on treatment and the interventions available to help them to allow their child's analysis to proceed.