Using Self Psychology in Child Psychotherapy: The Restoration of the Child (Self Psychology and Intersubjectivity)

This clearly written, practical book on child psychotherapy provides a developmentally based guide to understanding and treating children. The author makes sense of a wide spectrum of psychopatholoy with a few simply enunciated yet complex concepts that he creatively constructs out of early self psychology theory and various sectors of classical psychoanalytic and object relations theories. While his clinical examples are meant to illustrate his theoretical views, they stand by themselves as beautiful illustrations of the work of a sensitive, flexible, and responsive clinician. (Howard A. Bacal)

This exciting work is the first volume to present a systematic understanding of self psychology theory as it relates to child psychotherapy. Dr. Miller advances new theoretical constructs as applied clinically to child psychotherapy, expanding the dialogue for both child and adult therapists. In addition, his generous clinical examples are not only compelling but provide a means of understanding a wide range of issues often encountered in our practices. (Jacqueline J. Gotthold)

Jule Miller III makes a much-needed contribution to child psychotherapy. He is uniquely qualified to achieve an integration between ego psychological and self psychological approaches. In this process he has added original conceptions to self psychological theory, to an enriched understanding of childhood play, and to fantasy life. Detailed clinical illustrations abound, richly laced with Dr. Miller's personal experience. (Morton Shane and Estelle Shane)

Emphasizing the fragility of the developing self and the need for empathic selfobjects, Heinz Kohut revolutionized psychodynamic psychotherapy. His ideas changed the thinking and practice of every therapist. Curiously, this revolution did not extend to child psychotherapy. Now, Dr. Jule Miller III brings Kohut's therapeutic understanding and techniques to child work. Dr. Miller builds on Kohut's legacy, emphasizing each child's powerful, creative forces that push toward healthy self development, and brings new understanding to trauma and developmental arrest. In this book you will read about Jimmy, a 2-year-old who was expelled from preschool and almost put out of his home; Adam, a 2-year-old who hid in the bathroom while he heard his mother being raped; Allen, a 5-year-old who persistently climbed to the roof of his house, punched holes in walls, and talked about killing himself; William, an 11-year-old whose life was dominated by his younger brother's chronic illness and his mother's psychiatric hospitalization; and Leanna, a 16-year-old who had been abandoned by her parents and sexually abused for three years. Each of these cases is presented from the initial diagnostic interview to termination. In addition, other case vignettes are used to illustrate specific points. Dr. Miller brings Kohut's theory of the self to the treatment of children and adolescents, enabling therapists to heal a patient's self while it is still in the process of forming.

Jule Miller III, M.D., is a child psychiatrist in private practice in Biloxi, Mississippi. He graduated from St. Louis Universtiy School of Medicine, where he also completed his general psychiatry residency and child psychiatry fellowship.