中華心理衛生協會

This paper describes the psychoanalytic assessment process of a four-year-old boy who has eating difficulties and developmental delay. The author shows how the assessment facilitates the understanding of the boy’s internal conflict and the set up of psychotherapy plan. Through analysis of transference and counter-transference that manifested in the play and analytical situation, the boy showed the therapist that he was frightened and confused about the destructiveness inside him linked to the very unhelpful condition in the family. In his mind he fears that his destructive feelings will be unmanageable and that his aggression will destroy everything and nothing could be repaired. The excessive, unprocessed anxiety might have affected his ability for symbolization and thus contribute to his eating problem and developmental delay.