Milieu Psychotherapy

Sometimes it takes a community to heal a child. Residential treatment for severely neglected and abused children is in crisis, but uncountable children depend on it. Using his experience at Bruno Bettelheim s Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago and other treatment centers, the author revisits psychoanalytic milieu psychotherapy. He proposes a new conceptual foundation that integrates traditional perspectives with findings from contemporary research including relational neurobiology, infant research, trauma studies, attachment theory, and depth psychology. All of these point to the centrality of relationship, emotions, and the unconscious in both normal development and the therapeutic process. Through essays that speak to the heart, the author continues Bettelheim s tradition of a poetic prose that is provocative and engaging so that the reader can participate in the journey to liberate the therapeutic milieu from the grip of behavior management, returning it to a place where common humanity, empathy, and meaning-making is central. This book is essential to all individuals who are trying to help children suffering from severe emotional disturbances and mental illness.