ABSTRACT
Thinking about children and adolescents in an analytic way needs to be presented in clear and sensible language, free from jargon, so its usefulness can be readily appreciated. The future of analytic child and adolescent therapy is uncertain. The position of child psychoanalysis is now seriously threatened. The world demands quicker and less intensive methods. Child therapists must recognise that the model of seeing a child four or five times a week is becoming increasingly unrealistic. Even seeing a child once a week over any length of time is becoming a battle. This depressing view of analytic child therapy is counterbalanced by the excitement of new ways of working. Analytic child therapy is nearly a hundred years old. This history enables modern practitioners to learn and grow from the past, to see what has worked and why. The techniques in child therapy are constantly changing and being refined.
