ABSTRACT
Psychic development is a lifelong process, subject to both inner and outer influences, the outcome of a continuous interaction between what is innate or has become inbuilt in and the relationships and circumstances that one encounter. Brain and neurodevelopment are "use-dependent". The earliest stages of life are particularly crucial, both neurologically and psychologically. Brain modifications do occur throughout life, and, as Anna Freud indicated, relationships and events in day-to-day life can provide an opportunity for change and growth at all stages. Developmental therapy provides such an opportunity for change through a relationship fine-tuned to the patient's developmental needs. Psychoanalysis provides a particular kind of relationship, one that meets the needs of those individuals who have reached the stage of symbolic or "representational" thinking, but who are held back from further development by pathogenic influences from the past. The distinction between developmental and psychoanalytic work is thus a false one: psychoanalysis is itself a particular type of developmental therapy.
