Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Adolescents

In this book, Philip Rosenbaum and Richard Webb consider the complexities of working as counselors and psychotherapists for college students, and offer a broad and detailed account of the developmental issues essential to understanding adolescent experience. Drawing on existentialism, cultural psychology and relational and object relations theories in psychoanalysis, this book offers a perspective that is sensitive to both clinical concerns and the broader context of college counseling and working with adolescents. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of adolescent identities through a relationship with "otherness," and several considerations are explored as a result. These include the emergence and reconciliation of destructive feelings, suicidal phenomenology and the effects of trauma. By taking a fresh look at clinical developmental theories as they affect adolescents and young adults, Rosenbaum and Webb provide a view of college-student development that is theoretically rich and clinically applicable in a way that warrants renewed appreciation and practice among counselors, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts working with college-age clients.

Philip J. Rosenbaum is a clinical psychologist, supervising psychoanalyst and the Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Haverford College. He is the editor of the book Making Our Ideas Clear: Pragmatism and Psychoanalysis, and an emeriti editor of the Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. He is in private practice in Philadelphia. His website is www.philiprosenbaumphd.com. Richard E. Webb is a clinical psychologist in a private practice in Lansdale, PA (USA). He was the Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Haverford College for 32 years. He has published in a variety of journals including the Journal of Constructivist Psychology, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Theory & Psychology and Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy.

Introduction  1. Important Aspects of Our Existential Nature and Meaning-Making  2. Introduction to Four Existential-Relational Positions  3. Clinical Implications and Posture  4. Appreciating "Destructive" Processes in Adolescence  5. Developmental Considerations Associated with Suicide  6. Treating Trauma in the Fishbowl of University and College Counseling Centers  7. The Complexities of Otherness  8. A Macro-perspective on Groups and Group Identification  Conclusion