ABSTRACT

Among the formulations of psychoanalytic process, those that focus on psychological development hold an especially important position. Emphasizing the disorders of development in psychopathology, they view the treatment as an opportunity to revise faulty development and to facilitate resumption of impeded development. The concept of process, with parallel components observed in sequence over time, applies equally to development and to treatment. From adolescence onwards it clearly becomes a vital influence on normal development—for example, in mourning for the past. Developmental influences on the form and content of free association must also be taken into account. On the contrary, the cumulative acquisition of significance of speech and thought throughout childhood development plainly casts its influence on child therapy at different phases. Another powerful and complicated kind of influence that depends on development but becomes an independent factor results from the choices of education, training, line of work, marital partner, and geographic location.