ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter will deal with what we consider to be the most advanced aspects of psychoanalytic thinking about etiologic factors in the psychologi cal disturbances of childhood. W e must, however, immediately note some major omissions. Substantial restatements of the major theoretical formula tions of psychoanalytic developmental psychology, of the theory of mental functioning, and of the principles of symptom formation are excluded. They have been spelled out fully and cogently elsewhere (Arlow, 1963; Rapaport, i960; Fenichel, 1945). W e have also omitted the vicissitudes, normal and aberrant, of individual drives, of ego and superego constituents, and of psychosexual stages. Acquaintance with them is assumed. Little space has been devoted to looking backward, either to revisit old controver sies or to acknowledge and detail the historical foreshadowing of the newer formulations presented here. Similarly, space limitations do not permit elaboration of all points or documentation with research findings and case material: but wherever possible we have provided relevant references.1 1 We have also resisted the temptation to overemphasize developmental/etiological
Lastly, we have excluded from consideration childhood disorders based on rather clear-cut organic pathology (cerebral pathology, endocrine disorders, and the like), while including and indeed emphasizing the etiologic contri bution of constitutional “givens” that are within the broad boundaries of individual differences.
