title: A confusion of tongues or whose reality is it?
abstract: In a 1933 paper Ferenczi implied that conflict between the adult's and the child's construction of reality is traumatic for the child. As all individuals construct their own view of reality, it is inevitable that there will be conflicting constructions between child and adult--and between analyst and analysand. This may be biologically rooted; recent ethological studies suggest that parent-child conflict is ubiquitous because of a divergence of needs. When a child perceives a marked divergence between his or her construction of reality and that of the caretaker, the child may tend to reject the information proffered by the caretaker. This may appear later as a resistance to learning from the analyst. The divergence of needs between child and caretaker may have a profound influence on the child's cognitive development. The capacity to share other constructions of reality is a developmental achievement which may be facilitated by the psychoanalytic process.
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Modell
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D003142:Communication; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010553:Personality Development; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011936:Reality Testing