ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author briefly acknowledges the various theoretical views that lead to different emphases on certain techniques or, more specifically, ways of applying those techniques. Similarly, although the way a child analysis is conducted, with the child's use of play material and correspondingly more physical activity on the part of the therapist, differs from traditional adult psychotherapy. In child analysis, both the theoretical underpinning and the basic techniques employed—interpretation, use of transference and countertransference—are the same and can be considered together. The analyst's countertransference is an instrument of research into the patient's unconscious. The process in which a feeling is recognized by a reflective part of the mind seems to be very much at the heart of effective therapy. There are many times when silence is an appropriate tool for the therapist. The basis of all psychoanalysis is a complex theory of the emotional development of the infant and child.
