Seite - 71 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

Psychosexual development in puberty 71 In Work Discussion Seminars, the participants attempt to describe and reflect on concrete scenes from their pedagogical practice. This reflection enables the participants to detect deeper layers in the personality and ameliorate their negative effects, while exploiting their productive and creative potential. The situation of James Frost (as dubbed by his teacher H.) was discussed both in the Work Discus- sion Groups and later in an individual supervision (Rustin and Bradley 2008). I have already described in detail teacher H.’s pedagogical experience with James in his first two years in my book Latency (2018). Here, I will summarize this experience in order to continue on to James’ psychosexual inner conflicts and their treatment. In conclusion, I describe teacher H.’s continuing help for James during his puberty years. I would like to particularly focus on the psychoana- lytic attitude informing H.’s pedagogical practice, while retaining a clear distinc- tion to therapy. In her dealings with James’ parents and grandmother, H. could make a clear case for private therapeutic help, so that James then also entered psychotherapy. James’ family and school background James’ parents separated when he was three. We know nothing of his early contact with his father, but by the time James entered school, there was no more contact. He had a very close relationship to his mother; she essentially clung to him, allow- ing James to sleep in the marital bed until she (when James was seven) entered into a new relationship. James was very jealous of his new stepfather and tried to provoke him. When his mother told him that she was expecting a new baby, he flew into a rage, taking a kitchen knife and trying to attack his mother. His step- father, however, was able to take the knife away from James and protect his wife. James’ maternal grandmother then offered to take James to live with her and the grandfather. At the age of ten, James graduated from grade school to the (non -academic) secondary school. After half a year, he had a violent outburst. After a quarrel, he attacked a fellow student and tried to strangle him. When a teacher intervened, James attacked him as well. The police were called and James was sent to a psy- chiatric ward, where he remained for five months, a dreadful experience for him: he threatened suicide if he were ever put into a psychiatric ward again. At that time, he could accept psychotherapy for a while. However, he soon broke it off and refused to see a psychiatrist. Due to his emotional and social problems, he was deemed to require “special pedagogical support”; for such children, a supplementary educational teacher is assigned to the class. In James’ class, H. filled this role for five children in James’ situation. Discussion This initial information on James’ early years of life indicates that the roots of his psychic problems may lie in those very years. He seems not to have experienced