ABSTRACT
Graham Music takes up the issue of emotional neglect, arguing that its long-term impacts may be underestimated. A range of theoretical and research traditions, including developmental psychology, attachment theory, and neuroscience, are used to delineate key features and patterns that arise in the aftermath of neglect. Through his work with ten-year-old Martin, Music illustrates ways in which early neglect reverberates in the consulting room through the evocation of deadening and emotionally flat countertransference. Because neglected children so badly need from us what they also rarely evoke – our passion, interest, enjoyment, and zeal – it is essential, he argues, for us to actively engage them and attend to our own fluctuating vitality.
