ABSTRACT
Clinicians and other practitioners working with Looked After Children are only too aware that behind their alarming epidemiological representation lie extremely complex individuals. Observation of one’s relationship with the child is central to understanding the his or her experiences and feelings. Careful observation of the child’s behaviour and other communications can lead to understanding the child’s inner world, and the relationship between this and the child’s experiences in his or her external world. In “Growing up in Residential Care” (1998), we see him reflecting on his work pre-training and as a child psychotherapist. Then he worked as a residential social worker with children emotionally, physically, and sexually abused. In “The Development of the Concept of Time in Fostered and Adopted Children”, Canham explains something new that has interested him during clinical work with children. Canham’s re-visiting and re-writing of the Oedipus story, to illustrate and understand these children in the light of psychoanalysis’ most fundamental theory.
