The Role of Sports in the Development of the Superego of the Male Latency Child.

Psychoanalytic literature has often overlooked the child's participation in organized sports, which often can facilitate or impede not only expression of aggression and narcissism, but enhance or skew the growth of the child's superego and ego ideal. Specific outcomes are largely determined by the experience and knowledge of the parents, the coaches, and sports organizations for latency-aged youth. Sports participation facilitates a major step forward in psychic development, that is, an agreed-upon adherence to a set of rules and regulations, monitored by an official embodying the final word regarding rules and their infractions.

The illusion of parental celibacy. A necessary stage in adolescent development.

The paper begins by reviewing Freud's case history of Dora and emphasizing her involvement in and overstimulation by her parents' sexual behavior. This markedly interfered with her ability to desexualize her relationship with them. As a result she was unable to develop the illusion of parental celibacy, which I postulate is an important and necessary defensive stage in normal adolescence.

Medical procedures as a source of trauma.

Many medical procedures, while necessary and appropriate, may be experienced by a child or adolescent as a trauma, with the medical personnel considered as perpetrators in collusion with the parents. The medical procedures and the conditions requiring them are seldom the focus of routine history-taking or therapeutic process. Nevertheless, the long-range effects of these events may have serious and adverse effects on future development and psychopathology.

Ethical, legal, and psychodynamic considerations in intervention of a possible cult member.

A 17-year-old boy is brought involuntarily by his parents for admission to an adolescent unit after running away from home to join a cult. The adolescent is admitted to the hospital for a multidisciplinary assessment. Follow-up 6 months after discharge shows the family to have continued in family therapy with the patient remaining at home with no additional contact with the cult.

The role of audition in early psychic development, with special reference to the use of the pull-toy in the separation-individuation phase.

The role of audition as an important perceptual modality in early psychic development has been neglected. Some reasons for this neglect are suggested. In the development of psychoanalytic technique, the analyst has changed from a "tactile presence" to a "visual presence," then finally, with the analyst positioning himself behind the couch, to an "auditory presence.