Early Relational Trauma and the Development of the Self

Tomás Casado-Frankel is faculty and supervisor in the Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Program at the William Alanson White Institute. He is a graduate of that program and its psychoanalytic program. He is also a graduate of the Couple & Family Therapy program at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, in Madrid, Spain, and holds a postgraduate diploma in Conflict & Dispute Resolution Studies from Trinity College Dublin, in Ireland. He is in private practice in New York City. María Eugenia Herrero holds specialities in Psychiatry (Madrid), Forensic Psychiatry (Madrid) and Family Psychotherapy (Tavistock Clinic/San Pablo CEU, London & Madrid). She founded Project Sirio in 1998, and was the director of its two therapeutic communities for twenty-two years. The Project treats children and adolescents who have histories of severe neglect and/or abuse. Many have attachment related difficulties or disorders, and exhibit traits of, or at risk of developing, borderline personality disorder. She is in private practice in Madrid, Spain.

1. Introduction, 1.1. Attachment disorder, 2. Therapeutic accompaniment, 3. The budding bond, 3.1. The construction of an attachment: defining the relationship, 4. First trimester's wait: who are we?, 4.1. The guiding-accompanying-generating a wish for treatment dance, 4.2. The relationships of confusing affects, 5. Second trimester's wait: where do we come from?, 5.1. The therapeutic accompaniment system as a fluctuating space, 5.2. Work outside the therapeutic setting, 6. Third trimester's wait: problems in communication, 6.1. Traps and paradoxes of abuse: the communicative significance of play, 7. Autumn: crisis as danger and opportunity, 7.1. Times of crises and the dilemmas of adoption-foster care, 8. Winter: silent speech, 8.1. Appearances of a different nature: the surrogate family, 9. Spring: responsibility and freedom, 9.1. Angsty freedom, 10. Creating a time of our own: China and Pandora's box, 10.1. Chinese culture: an experience beyond the culinary, 10.2. The disintegrating environment, fears and flights to other worlds, 11. Running out of time: where to now?, 11.1. In search of a dynamic equilibrium and the new technologies, 11.2. Towards a reparative attachment, 12. Individuation and autonomy, 12.1. Separation, attachment and time to stop