ABSTRACT
Latency is a developmental period that plays a transitional role, like ‘a bridge’, between early childhood and adolescence. Although it is of interest in being a point in child development with both a previous reference—to early childhood, and a later reference—to adolescence, the latency period is a subject that has not received sufficient attention in psychoanalysis in recent years. In psychoanalytical terms latency is defined as a developmental period in which psychosexual maturation marks time—it occurs after the Oedipal phase and ends with the beginning of puberty, and is a period of emotional abeyance between the confusion and dramas of childhood and adolescence. This introduction also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an overall definition of the latency period including: its importance for social identity development; and its relationship to cultural preservation—in the meaning of being a necessary period in human development.
