This article records the stage I have arrived at after a number of years devoted to the analysis of a boy who was 5.3 years old at the beginning of therapy. As his capacity for symbolic representation was extremely restricted, he was initially incapable of expressing his affects, fantasies and ideas in any other way than by physical arousal. His ego functions, such as reality testing or the propensity for probationary action via play and language, were not as well developed as they should have been at his age. As he was unable to draw clear boundaries between his own self and others or between reality and fantasy, his internal world was marked by confusion and fragmentation. Accordingly, he was completely at the mercy of his unmodulated affects. How can we conceptualise «treatment technique» in connection with children who are incapable of play? How can we gain a capacity for assigning significance to emotional states? With reference to detailed Session material, I attempt to indicate the problems besetting the boy's family. The outline of the boy's treatment is designed to create an understanding of this course of analysis that takes full account of the issues posed by transgenerational legacies. The article discusses the intermesh between parental endeavours and analytic work and the re-enactment of the traumatic experiences that fuel conjectures about transgenerational complications.

Treatment technique Incapacity for symbolic representation Child analysis Transgenerational legacies

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