The Silent Child

Jeanne Magagna was Head of Psychotherapy Services at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children for twenty-two years. She also worked for ten years at Ellern Mede Centre for Eating Disorders in London. She received professional qualifications as a child, adult and family psychotherapist and a doctorate from the Tavistock Clinic. Formerly, Jeanne was the vice-president and joint coordinator of training for the Centro Studi Martha Harris Tavistock model trainings in Florence and Venice. She edited 'Universals of Psychoanalysis' and jointly edited 'Psychotherapy with Families and Intimate Transformations: Babies with their Families' (Karnac Books, 2004). Her special interest is applying the understandings of infant observation to work with children suffering from communication difficulties and anorexia nervosa.

Introduction -- Introduction -- “The sound of silence” -- “Milo was a normal boy” -- Communicating without words -- Young Children -- The musings of babies: reflective thinking, emotion, and the re-integration of the good object -- A baby’s “broken bridge” to the parents -- Evolving patterns of parental containment of a young child communicating through not eating or speaking -- The child who has not yet found words -- Young People -- Extended family explorations using dreams, drawings, and play when the referred child does not speak -- Inpatient care of a child who does not walk, talk, or eat -- Collaborating, containing, and inspiring confidence: physiotherapy with a child who does not talk, walk, or eat -- The silent child in school: teaching a child who does not talk, walk, or eat -- “Compelled to die”: psychotherapy with a girl who does not talk, walk, or eat -- Countertransference in the psychoanalysis of a silent adolescent boy -- A journey through family therapy with a non-speaking child -- Opaque silence in groups -- Creative Activities for Non-Speaking Children -- The creative group experience -- Roar and rumpus: engaging non-speaking children through stories and songs