Eileen Treatment of a Foster Child

The case of seven-year-old Eileen underscores the inherent difficulties in forming an intimate therapeutic bond with a child in foster care. Experiences of loss permeate Eileen's psychic life and impede her symbolic capacities. Her mother died when she was 10 months old, her grandmother was sub...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of infant, child, and adolescent psychotherapy child, and adolescent psychotherapy, 2004-07, Vol.3 (3), p.384-390
Main Author: Subramanian, Sujatha
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The case of seven-year-old Eileen underscores the inherent difficulties in forming an intimate therapeutic bond with a child in foster care. Experiences of loss permeate Eileen's psychic life and impede her symbolic capacities. Her mother died when she was 10 months old, her grandmother was subsequently lost, and her father was unavailable. In treatment, she enacts themes of rejection ("I'm never coming back!"). She brings her therapist close, abandons her, and then surprises her by coming back. The therapist often finds herself in the role of the confused child, while Eileen becomes an aloof adult. Surviving these abandonments allows Eileen to play out symbolically her deep wishes for reunion. She develops games such as peekaboo in which she is a baby who needs to be found and draws elaborate mazes in which she allows herself to connect to her therapist.
ISSN:1528-9168
1940-9214
DOI:10.1080/15289160309348473