Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Disturbed Adopted and Foster Children: A Single Case Follow-Up Study

This paper addresses the theme of the long-term utility of psychoanalytic psycho-therapy for a child who was exposed to traumatic psychological experiences in the early years of life. He was adopted relatively late and then taken into psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the age of 11 because of unhappiness and negative self feelings, and school behavioural problems. He was comprehensively assessed when aged 10, 11 and 13. A catch-up longitudinal design was used (Robins, 1980) at the age of 15 using age-and behaviour appropriate measures. The latter allow a view of his wider adjustment to his early life experiences and his adjustment to his adoption, and also an insight into the processes of therapy in relation to outcome. This study utilizes a variation of the classical single case study method (Kazdin, 1982).