Child and Adult Development: A Psychoanalytic Introduction for Clinicians (Critical Issues in Psychiatry)

Rating:
Summary: Not just for clinicians...
Review: Calvin Colarusso, MD, of the University of California (San Diego) School of Medicine, is a recognised expert in the field of human behavioural development. This relatively brief book (just over 200 pages) is one of the first clinically-relevant texts to give a survey of both child and adult development. Colarusso works this development together in the text as a continuous stream from birth to death, looking at all of the relevant factors and most of the major theories regarding development at each stage.

From the forward, Dr. Sherwyn Woods writes: 'Developmental theory is the essence of any psychodynamic psychotherapy, and certainly of psychoanalysis. It is through an understanding of progressive life events, and the way these events relate to associated biological and social events, that we come to understand both psychopathology and psychological strengths... This book should be of great interest to all students of human behaviour as well as to seasoned clinicians.'

Colarusso begins with an historical overview and some general guiding principles of child development. He gives definitions and contexts in which concepts will be explored. He shows at the beginning some of the key differences in child development and adult development (egocentricity, sexual immaturity/maturity, cognitive and emotional ability and stability, etc.), and introduces the idea of the developmental lines. He repeats a similar chapter introducing an historical overview and general principles of adult development at the start of that section. Here he concentrates much more on the specific theorists (pioneers such as Van Gennep, Freud, Jung, and Erikson; contemporaries such as Levinson, Vaillant, Nemiroff, and Colarusso), as well as an examination of ideas such as the effects of aging and the influence of biological and psychological factors on normal adult development.

At the outset of each of the broad sections, Colarusso also presents a chapter on diagnostic processes and tools -- including evaluation and collection of data, reliability of data, appropriate and extraneous data (what to note, what to ignore), and the appropriateness of various questioning techniques and tools.

Colarusso breaks his child development chapters in to the following stages: the Oral phase (ages 0-1), the Anal phase (ages 1-3), the Oedipal phase (ages 3-6), Latency (ages 6-11), and adolescence (ages 12-20). These stages are not set in stone, but normal development always progresses through these stages. Various researchers break these stages apart differently, or have different terminology for the stages; within the chapters, Colarusso examines these as well. For example, in the chapter on the Oral phase, Colarusso presents the ideas of Mahler (separation-individuation theory stages), Spitz (psychic organiser stages), ideas of Anna Freud, Piaget, Stoller, Kohut, and Stern.

While the stages of child development share great similarity if not the same interpretations, the stages of adult development are less clear. Erikson divides adulthood into 20-year blocks of time (young adult, middle adult, late adulthood), which Colarusso uses for his topically break-points, but explores the sub-categories introduced by others such as Gould and Levinson.

Colarusso presents theoretical frameworks as well as case studies. He does not embark on grand defenses of one theoretical framework over another, but rather seeks to illustrate those parts of each that have proven most useful in a clinical context.

As a pastoral care provider, I am pleased to have historical and theoretical underpinning and a survey of differing ideas, but even more pleased that the focus is on practical assistance, so that those ideas may be made useful.

I recommend this book to anyone who seeks a greater understanding of human behaviour and development. Don't let the idea of a 'clinical' and 'medical' textbook dissuade you. This is an important book for anyone who want to understand others. I would also recommend the book to parents (so as to better understand childhood development).