Six Children

'Ann Smolen is a deeply compassionate person and a superb child analytic clinician. In this book she demonstrates her profound skill and her deep respect for children, families and for the power and scope of child analysis. In an era in which the value of analysis as a treatment modality is validly questioned, this book eloquently, persuasively and decisively demonstrates and proclaims its ongoing relevance and unparalleled therapeutic value. Ann Smolen accompanies her analysands and by so doing is granted admission into the most private aspects of their mental lives, personal and familial histories and the conflicts which reside within. By so doing, she becomes a prominent component of each child's developmental saga of personal meaning and return to optimal idiographic and nomethetic development. For all practioners who work with children and families, this is a vital, uplifting and crucial read.'- James Herzog, MD, author of Father Hunger: Explorations with Adults and Children'In this illuminating volume Ann Smolen offers the reader precious understanding of six very different children who all share a deep need for insightful and sensitive help. She makes a strong and poignant case for the power of child psychoanalysis to change the lives of children and parents. Her bookend descriptions of the history and future of child analysis will be useful to mental health students and practitioners, as well as interested cultural commentators, while the specific case discussions helpfully frame the clinical work. It is an honour to be given such a detailed window on the inner lives of children and the thinking of the analyst at work. This book should inspire others to do this work!'- Kerry Kelly Novick, child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst, author of Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work and Emotional Muscle: Strong Parents, Strong Children