ABSTRACT

In regard to early onset psychosis, there is no general agreement even as to the presence of parental psychopathology. However, psychoanalytically oriented studies that utilise intensive and reconstructive evaluations report that there is a profoundly conflictual parent–child relationship in their cases. But since these same constellations have been found in families with non-psychotic children, their aetiological significance is not clear. While the psychopathological entity known as early childhood psychosis has been recognised as a clinical disorder for many years, considerable disagreement remains regarding its aetiology. Our approach was based upon M. Mahler theoretical premise that the onset of childhood psychosis takes place during the first year of life, in connection with the infant’s failure to experience regular and predictable gratification of his affect hunger. The youngest group was referred in the main by paediatricians and social workers. Speech and hearing clinics and neurologists referred some others, and there were a few self-referrals.