The Inner World of an Aggressive Kindergarten Boy: A Child and Analyst at Work

with Denia G. Barrett, MSW

Program Description
This clinical presentation will illustrate work with a young child whose aggressive behaviors interfered with his relationships with family members, teachers, and peers. The analysis included understanding of his identifications with aggression in his object world, his use of aggression as a defense against painful affects, and allowed him and each parent to move ahead developmentally.

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About the Presenter:  Denia Barrett, MSW, is the Director of Children’s Services and the Center for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.  These programs provide direct psychotherapy services, regardless of a family’s ability to pay, along with outreach programs in schools in Chicago’s most impoverished and violent neighborhoods.  Mrs. Barrett began her career working in a community infant mental health setting before pursuing analytic training at the Hanna Perkins Center in Cleveland, Ohio.  She is a faculty member and child and adolescent supervisor at the Chicago Institute, the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, and the Institute of the Carolinas.  She serves on the editorial boards of the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child and Psychoanalytic Social Work.  In addition to writing about and presenting her clinical work nationally and abroad, she has contributed to volumes on ethics, supervision, and children’s dreams.  She is a past president of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis.  

Leaning Objectives: By the end of the session, learners should be able to:

1. Describe a technical approach to helping a child whose aggressive behavior interferes with school functioning and relationships
2. Identify the importance of a father’s contribution to a child’s mastery of aggression
3. Design treatment plans that involve estranged parents in supporting a child’s psychotherapeutic treatment

Register Here for the Presentation