ABSTRACT
In 1976 Anna Ornstein entered the scientific community with her essay “Making contact with the inner world of the child: Toward a theory of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children.” Already in this early work, Anna Ornstein described theoretically and clinically the different intra-psychological and inter-personal relationship patterns within a family system and her findings and her approach fits seamlessly and without dissonance with the results of modern infant and attachment research, neurobiology, and affect regulation theory. With her concept from environmental centered analytic family therapy of a child who suffers, Anna Ornstein has developed an outstanding and realistic treatment form. This treatment form enables the child who suffers from environmentally difficult circumstances and their affected parents to develop the possibility of a therapeutic dialogue that helps to master developmental tasks and therefore facilitates maturation.
