Psychoanalytic attendance to children in family: the family symptom

Propõe o atendimento psicanalítico de crianças, partindo da concepção de que o sintoma da criança está ligada às relações familiares, e da importância de \"separá-los\" de seus pais antes de iniciar um trabalho de psicoterapia individual com a mesma. Baseia o atendimento em três vértices principais: a referência e a criança; é realizado entre o diagnóstico e o possível encaminhamento individual para uma psicoterapia, podendo incluir a etapa diagnóstica; todo atendimento é tomado como uma sessão de análise. Utiliza 2 instrumentos: a pessoa do psicoterapeuta, sem desenvolvimento pessoal e profissional e o contexto, que segue as especificações do setting analítico. Analisa os conteúdos das expressões verbais e não-verbais, das relações transferenciais e da contratransferência do psicoterapeuta. Faz a pesquisa com 10 famílias de nivel sócio-econômico médio. Os Ss variam de 5 a 19 anos, apresentando sintomas do tipo: agitação, dispersão, irritabilidade, intolerância, dificuldades escolares e disturbios alimentares. Aponta que muitos fatores têm contribuído para a formação de sintomas na criança, para a perda de contato com a real identidade; incluem o instituído (o sócio-cultural), a condição pessoal dos pais, seus imagos parentais, as experiências da criança, sua própria constituição (física e psíquica), sua disposição pessoal, sua subjetividade. Os resultados indicam que a proposta recupera a força do encontro humano, que se dá em condições especiais (setting analítico) favorecendo o redespertar da individualidade, resgatar a autoridade parental, permitir o ressurgimento de afetos positivos. Sugere o uso desta metodologia dentro da família em caráter profilático, a partir do momento em que começam a se revelar os problemas de relacionamentoThis work owes its origins to the concept that a child\'s symptom is directly related to family relationships and that one cannot begin an individual analysis without separating the child from his/her parents. It consists in attending to the family with an analytic methodology focusing on the child. It is a family-based work which rests on three main points: 1. the child is the main reference; 2. it is employed between the diagnostic and a possible start of personal analysis, and can include the evaluation stage; and 3. every attendance is taken to be an analysis session. Two principal instruments are considered: the person of the psychotherapist, with his or her personal and professional development, and the context, which follows the specifications of the analytic setting. The content to be analysed is made up of verbal and nonverbal expressions, of transferencial relations and of the psychotherapist\'s countertransference. The work is performed with families of average socio-economic level. The children were in a broad age range, from tive to nineteen years old, and presented symptoms such as agitation, inattention, irritability, intolerance, learning dificulties, eating disorders and others. Results reveal the possibility of attending to families, giving support to the following clinical claims: the family is always implicated in some manner with the child symptoms; the non-discrimination between child and parents inhibits understanding of what, from whom, and to whom one is speaking; the parents emotional immaturity is a factor favoring projections on to children, resulting in harm to them; the parents unresolved oedipus can create a hostile, competitive and disrespectful climate on the parents part, and may favour complications, halting children\'s development; the inability to live love within family relationships, specially in relation to children, does not favour the growth and blooming of their true selves. Moreover, results indicate that some relief of the child\'s symptoms is possible, and that the use of this methodology becomes possible to dispense with individual analysis, or even dismiss it, in cases where family influences were decisive in creating and/or maintaining the child\'s symptoms. This attending procedure reinforces the importance of the psychotherapist\'s development and the building of an adequate setting, emphasizing the care required on receiving a child for diagnosis, not to consider him/her immediately as the patient, given an explicit request by the family. It reinstates a legitimate parental authority, specially the father\'s, allowing the ressurgence of positive affects, putting hope in love and human relationships. Finally, brings a new meaning to the child\'s initial distres