Aggression, containment, and treatment enactments in the psychodynamics of limit setting.
Limit setting has an important role in psychotherapeutic treatment. Despite this, the psychodynamics of limit setting have been a largely neglected topic in the literature. This article will present a theoretical discussion on the psychodynamics of limit setting particularly as it relates to the parent-child and the therapist-patient relationship. The central roles of aggression and impulse containment will be reviewed along with an overview of the relationship between limit setting and projective identification. Potential enactments that occur during the treatment of limit testing patients will be examined. Case material of the treatment of a child with a disruptive behavior disorder will be used to elaborate the discussion.
Department of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Boston, MA, USA. charles_henry@hms.harvard.edu
Charles
C
Henry
D000184:Acting Out; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D003379:Countertransference; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology; D006380:Helplessness, Learned; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011385:Projection; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D014167:Transference, Psychology