ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the theoretical concepts pertaining to normal and abnormal development; the development of violent tendencies; and their use as a defence against extreme vulnerability, helplessness and frightening feelings of terror. It discusses the issues of clinical technique to highlight the complexity and challenge of working psychoanalytically with a violent child in a child therapy setting. The therapeutic work is centred on understanding the communicative value of the child’s play and the part played by the therapeutic relationship. W. R. Bion introduces concepts of “container” and “contained” and the significance of environmental factors in containing and transforming a child’s aggression. Bion proposes that during early development the mother’s capacity for reverie is central to this process of containment, as reverie functions to transform unbearable anxieties into bearable experiences. W. R. D. Fairbairn proposes that aggression is associated with a lack of gratification and a sense of deprivation.