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Children's Pathology Leading to Disruption of Object Relations
Last modified: 2018-09-09
Abstract
Numerous childhood psychiatric disorders have a clear genetic propensity (e.g. Autism, ADHD, Anxiety, etc.) but there is a common statement mothers's will make, "I could tell something changed in their will at the age of two". Object Relations Theory (i.e. the interanlization of a positive object) is the subject of this study. Two approaches were taken: A) Doing a retrospective chart review of 166 cases of Disruptive Behavior Disorders to see how many mother's made this comment and B) trying to apply a strategy to recreate this emotional bridge (i.e. the Virtual Parent Teddy-bear) to see if the symptoms could be altered. The former was noteable showing that 84% of mothers made this comment. The later showed variable improvement in that 12% of mothers reported a signficant improvement but over 56% showed mild improvement and 32% showed no improvement. While it was a prospective study, a placebo control group was not conducted at this time. Of course, the most signicant question is why does the "strong will" exist in the first place and what does it mean to the child's overall development including neurological adaptations.
Keywords
development, Object Relations, strong will
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