Psychodynamic Case Study: Mother-Child Relationship

Chloe was a ten year old girl with a trauma background. Whilst Chloe idolised me, I found her repulsive. She was dirty, unhygienic, and stood too close. Chloe was often in a daze and would masturbate without even realising. Both parents were drug addicts, and Chloe’s father had died from a drug overdose when Chloe’s mother was pregnant with her. Chloe was raised in an abusive environment. At one time her mother’s boyfriend kidnapped Chloe’s younger brother. Consequently, Chloe’s mother moved her and her brother to Canberra to get away from the abusive environment. I had no patience for Chloe. I wanted physical space from her and could feel my body tense up in her presence. It wasn’t until Chloe disclosed traumatic events in her life

Transference includes unconscious phantasy, projective identification, containment and omnipotence. Klein believed that transference originated in the same way as object relations (Rosenbluth, 1970). Object relations is the internal representation of figures and relationships which are emotionally significant. For example, when an infant is fed by the good object (breast) the infant has an internal experience of goodness. As these experiences are repeated, the infant feels that she has an internal source of goodness and forms a positive relationship to a good object. As a result the infant develops a secure infant attachment. If the object is not available, and this experience is repeated, the infant developments an insecure attachment (Waddell,

Waska (2013) believes that through projective identification therapists are pulled into the patient's internal experience. In turn, the therapist either experiences what the patient is feeling, or takes on the role of the patient's object. Projective identification was evident with Chloe in which I was a representation of her internal parents. I felt repulsed by Chloe and in a sense she was unlovable to me. Interestingly, Chloe felt unlovable by her own parents who were taking drugs whilst she was in-uterus, and also by her stepdad who had only kidnapped Chloe’s little brother and not her. In Chloe’s eyes, she wasn’t worth being kidnapped. Chloe was projecting her inner world onto me as she was seeking a container (Shopper, 1998). Bion (1967) believed that a person’s thoughts can be contained in a mental container. In infancy, an infant expels unbearable anxiety into their mother's mental container. The mother then transforms the anxiety into a bearable element that can be tolerated (Maiello, 2012). In the same way, patients transfer their unbearable feelings onto their therapist to contain. Through transference and countertransference, these feelings are adopted, thought about, modified and returned to the patient in a different way (Weiss,