ABSTRACT
In pondering the principles of psychotherapy with the client group, it may be helpful first to explore some basic psychoanalytic considerations. In his final account of psychoanalysis, S. Freud summarised the therapeutic task as one of assisting a weak ego: The ego is weakened by the internal conflict and we must go to its help. The raw “disintegrative” aggression of the child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is not of a more “neutralised” kind that can be used to promote growth, independence, and higher ego functions, as described by Solnit and Hartmann, Kris, and Loewenstein. The capacity to postpone gratification and to tolerate frustration, subordinating the pleasure principle to the reality principle so that an eventual, more desirable, satisfaction can be attained, is a crucial and momentous development, underlying all personal and cultural achievement. An important aspect of ego functioning is to draw together and unite the different and sometimes conflicting desires, thoughts, perceptions, and needs within the person.
