Musing on Being and Reflecting on All That Can Be Found: Introduction to Tuber’s, Conway’s and Sossin’s Papers

Abstract

This article is an introduction to the papers by Tuber, Conway and Sossin that follow. A shared element in the three papers is the therapist's capacity to hold a child's mental and emotional state in mind and to reflect on his experiences in life. In providing an account of psychodynamic work with children with an LD (Tuber) and Autism Spectrum (Sossin) diagnosis, and in reviewing current research on psychodynamic treatments for children with ADHD (Conway), the three authors add to the growing number of articles on psychoanalytic and psychodynamic work with children with an underlying neurological disorder that have begun to appear in the literature. Collectively, these papers suggest that children and adolescents with developmental disabilities can benefit from treatments that are mindful of their internal world and seek to expand their understanding of themselves and others.