ABSTRACT
Christine Anzieu-Premmereur adds a rich clinical component to this section. Her chapter focuses on the difficulty of treating children with severe defects of representation, children who are ‘deprived of life,’ who were never able to develop symbolic representation. From the Freudian notion of the embodied self to the development of a sexual body and a body Ego, Anzieu-Premmereur’s chapter expands on the role of the body in Ego integration during early childhood, with clinical vignettes of babies and toddlers in session with their parents. The author also integrates infant researching of her exposition, showing the importance of body sensations and their psychical assimilation. Anzieu-Premmereur asserts, with references to Spitz, Winnicott, Grotstein and Lombardi, that imitation, mirroring dyadic relations, holding and handling are at the forefront of maintaining a centered body ego. Infant observation and psychoanalytic interventions with disturbed young children show the role of the intersubjective relationship between parents and babies, and inform the therapeutic technique.
