Page - 79 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

Psychosexual development in puberty 79 like here,” he answers. “Can you go outside there?” I ask, returning to my original thoughts; “What did you think when you saw the classes?” He widens his eyes, pulls up his shoulders a bit, leaving them in this position, and says slowly: “I don’t know.” A pause arises, he looks in the classroom, which I interpret as a sign he wants to break off the conversation. “Maybe you found it to be ok and thought ‘everything great’, or you thought ‘Get me out of here!’” He turns his head quickly back in my direction and says “Right! Get me out of here!” His attention is once more completely on our conversation. “I know even less about a psychiatric facility, and that’s why I’d like to ask you how it was in the clinic. Were you allowed to go out there?” James shakes his head. “No. In the first week I was in the green section, that’s the closed section. There’s also a red one, an orange one and a yellow one. But I don’t know the differences between them. After a week, they put me in the red section.” “It’s good you’re past that,” I say, looking in his eyes. He grins crookedly and nods . . . “You can be sure that I won’t say any of this to anyone. Unless of course I was worried that your health was at risk.” James nods, murmurs “MHHHM!” and continues munching on his roll. Discussion At first glance, it is amazing that James visited the education facility with the social worker. He seems to be completely convinced that he will not be made to stay there. He knows his mother and his stepfather will not send him there against his will. Still, James has surely been under great stress. H. helps him to talk about and order his upsetting experiences. She can at first accept his defenses, expressed in “I don’t know”, allowing him a short pause. She then supplies him with two alternatives – either he found it ok, or he wanted to get out. His spontaneous answer shows that she guessed correctly: he wanted to get out. H. can empathize with his agitated state and the danger that he will once again be committed to an institution. However, she does not press him further, also not interpreting his answer but instead expressing her wish to learn more about the clinic. James can fulfill her wish, and he begins to speak with her about this subject for the first time. H. is able to express for James how glad he is to be past this episode. He feels understood and supported (contained). James’ mother also reported that James can now speak with her about his hor- rible experiences in the psychiatric ward. Since we have no information about his psychotherapy, which is proceeding simultaneously as this period at school, we can only presume that the therapist has succeeded in working through these traumatic experiences with James. The teacher learns from James’ mother that she visited him daily in the clinic, but that he did not wish to see her – not once. He rejected her as he felt rejected by her. At the same time, it was presum- ably very important to experience how much he meant to his mother, since she refused to give up and kept visiting him daily.