PSYCHOANALYTIC Play Therapy | AUDREY PUNNETT, PHD, RPT-S, CST-T/ISST & ERIC J. GREEN, PHD, LPC-S, RPT-S, SP


The key concept of this theory is the exploration of the unconscious. The psychoanalytic community tends to view the therapist’s role  Attention is focused on a child’s anxieties, defenses, and fantasies (as they appear in play and verbalizations).


P


Basic Tenets          of Sigmund Freud, Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, Margaret Lowenfeld, Anna Freud, and Melanie Klein (Punnett, 2016). For the Freudian           the pleasure principle, all the while attempting to negotiate reality demands without incurring superego strictures” (Lee, 1997, p. 46).


Although Freud never worked with children, his followers extended the theories to include models suited for work with children and adolescents. Object relations theory, ego psychology, and self psychology expanded on Freud’s concepts (Abraham, 1994; Blanck & Blanck, 1979, 1994; Kernberg, 1976, 1980; Klein, 1969, 1975; Kohut, 1971, 1977, 1978). These  psychotherapies—a way of working with children that considers both the psychoanalytic and analytic traditions.


  to Freud’s developmental stages: oral, anal, and phallic stages. The hallmark is the resolution of the Oedipal conflict during this last phase, and the major components of the personality are developed by the end of the Oedipal period. During the latency period (6 years old to puberty), changes are consolidated. During the last phase, the genital stage, from adolescence onward, the primary task is to develop an intimate relationship.


Psychopathology and Client Dysfunction Psychopathology occurs with the development of an overly strong preference for any one instinct (a ), which could lead to potential regression in times of stress. When the therapist


46 | PLAYTHERAPY September 2019 | www.a4pt.org


sychoanalytic play therapy is mindful of the symbols in the child’s play, which is a manifestation of the unconscious mind.


encounters a child’s regression, s/he looks for the underlying period of inadequate satisfaction in the child’s life. Anna Freud observed blockages in a child’s progression of development as the underlying cause of psychopathology; the goal of psychotherapy, then, is the removal of these blockages so a natural healthy development can proceed. According to psychoanalytic theory, removing blockages occurs by carefully interpreting the defenses, and later the drives, as repressed material becomes more conscious.


In psychoanalytic psychology, problems are viewed as


disturbances when regulating impulses between the id, ego,


superego. The ego fails at regulating the demands of the id, the superego, and the external reality.


In psychoanalytic psychology, problems are viewed as disturbances when regulating impulses between the id, ego, superego. The ego fails at regulating the demands of the id, the superego, and the external reality. This leads to anxiety and maladaptive defenses/ behaviors. There are periods of deintegration and integration, that is, anxiety followed by the reestablishment of a steady state, or regulation into the mother-child adaptive relationship with the environment. Thus, growth moves from instinct-centeredness to ego-centeredness with resultant


failures evidenced in developmental disorders and


illnesses. Psychological growth occurs when a child relies less on the id or pleasure principle and more on the ego or “I,” as we know it, to make more logical decisions.


Applying the Theory Muriel (pseudonym) was an upper-elementary school-aged African- American female residing in the southern US. She was referred for


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