Children in Mind

Jenny Perkel

Description

A psychologist’s guide for parents, care-givers and health care practitioners to the emotional challenges facing children and their parents in today’s world in a South African context.

In Children in Mind, clinical psychologist Jenny Perkel presents a broad range of up-to-date findings from psychological, neurobiological, genetic, psychiatric, sociological and epidemiological research related to the diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems faced by children in South Africa today.

Theoretically informed but not theoretically dense, the book cites both local and international studies to increase awareness and understanding of children’s mental health. It focuses on key issues children and adolescents in today’s world face: The Covid-19 pandemic, the influence of electronic media, diverse family structures, stress and trauma, and difficult socio-economic circumstances.

Children in Mind is an invaluable resource for all those who work with troubled children and adolescents: psychologists, social workers, counsellors, educators and parents. The author’s informed and compassionate approach will help equip professionals and parents to help young people navigate complex issues and make adjustments in their behaviour in order to live more balanced and happier lives.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I The clinical picture of childhood mental distress

Chapter 1 What brings today’s children to psychotherapy?

Chapter 2 Childhood psychiatric diagnosis today

Chapter 3 Scared, sad children and their self-protective defences

Chapter 4 Treating today’s troubled children: Paradigm clashes

Chapter 5 New findings about nature versus nurture

Part II The impact of modern life on children’s mental health

Chapter 6 The internet and today’s children

Chapter 7 Childhood adversity today

Chapter 8 Socio-economic considerations: The gap between rich and poor children

Chapter 9 Children of the pandemic

Chapter 10 When children don’t go outside and play

Chapter 11 Today’s parents in mind

Chapter 12 Modern families

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Developmental
• Mental Health
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Human development (biology)
• Psychology
• Child

Informations

• Publié par: WITS University Press
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776147502
• Langue: English

Extrait

Children in mind
Children in Mind
Their mental health in todays world and what we can do to help them
Jenny Perkel
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg 2001
www.witspress.co.za
Copyright Jenny Perkel 2022
Published edition Wits University Press 2022
First published 2022
http://dx.doi.org.10.18772/12022047472
978-1-77614-747-2 (Paperback)
978-1-77614-748-9 (Hardback)
978-1-77614-749-6 (Web PDF)
978-1-77614-750-2 (EPUB)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.
Project manager: Lisa Compton
Copyeditor: Lisa Compton
Proofreader: Alison Paulin
Indexer: Elaine Williams
Cover design: Hothouse
Typeset in 10 point Stone Serif Std
Dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Sharon
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One The Clinical Picture of Childhood Mental Distress
1 What Brings Todays Children to Psychotherapy?
2 Childhood Psychiatric Diagnosis Today
3 Scared, Sad Children and Their Self-Protective Defences
4 Treating Todays Troubled Children: Paradigm Clashes
5 New Findings about Nature versus Nurture
Part Two The Impact of Modern Life on Child Mental Health
6 The Internet and Todays Children
7 Childhood Adversity Today
8 Socio-economic Considerations: The Gap between Rich and Poor Children
9 Children of the Pandemic
10 When Children Dont Go Outside and Play
11 Todays Parents in Mind
12 Modern Families

Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Although I wrote this book, it has been informed and influenced by a great many remarkable people, including friends, colleagues, clinical supervisors, academic lecturers and authors. Many of them have no idea how much they have influenced my clinical work and my writing over the years. Thanks to my colleagues at the Western Cape and Gauteng Associations for Infant Mental Health and also to the members of the Cape Town Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Group. Connecting regularly with these colleagues over the years has been an invaluable source of thinking, learning and insight. Thank you also to Samantha Naicker and the network of colleagues associated with Babies in Mind . Thanks to Katherine Bain, editor of the journal Psychoanalytic Practice , and to members of the South African Psychoanalytic Confederation for being unwaveringly committed to best practice as psychotherapists. Thank you to Debbie Kaminer for her intelligence and her friendship. Thank you also to Roshan Cader and Wits University Press for believing in this book. I am deeply indebted to my husband, Adrian, for his enquiring mind and his support of my writing and other pursuits. I am also greatly inspired by and truly thankful to my daughter, Michaela, for being the extraordinary person that she is and for all she has taught me over the past 18 years.
Introduction
Children in Mind is the book I would like to have read when I was just starting my career as a clinical psychologist specialising in child mental health. The primary focus of this book is modern, up-to-date clinical child psychology in relationship to the context in which todays children are being raised. Many people ask the question, Are children today better or worse off than children in previous generations? The multitude of factors associated with child development and mental health means that the answer is much too complicated for a single, simplified response. Childhood is certainly not what it used to be, and distressed, unhappy children need their psychologists, therapists and educators to be thinking about the current, lived experience of being a child in this new and constantly changing world.
A childs developing mind is deeply influenced by the environment in which he or she is being raised. This context is partly made up of the home, parents, family, peer group and school. The wider context includes the childs community, race and physical location, all of which have their socio-economic, political and historical complexities. Child psychology cannot be isolated from any of these factors. I have written this book from my own perspective as a clinical psychologist trained in South Africa. My clinical experience is with South African children, across a wide range of socio-economic and racial diversity. So there is inevitably some focus on the South African context in this book and it features in certain chapters more than others. However, Children in Mind is not limited to the South African context. It is about all children everywhere and it refers to research from around the world, including from Asia, Europe, the US, Australia, the UK and Africa. My perspective reflects the current worldwide movement towards global mental health. 1 This movement recognises that mental health is a global challenge requiring urgent intervention, with an emphasis on correcting the inequity in health-care provision across deep socio-economic divides.
Whether as educators, psychologists, therapists, medical professionals or childcare workers, people who work with children are typically very interested in the mind of a child. Throughout the course of their careers, these professionals are generally required to broaden and deepen their knowledge about the behaviour and emotions of children. They also need to be able to think critically about existing knowledge in the field and about how todays world impacts on children - for better or worse. Some child psychology books focus on listing and describing symptoms, categorising and diagnosing various disorders. Others are located within specific theoretical frameworks, which can make it difficult for the reader to think outside of that particular paradigm. The literature sometimes offers a repetition of existing knowledge rather than a thoughtful revision and critique of that knowledge based on new or updated research and changing times in the outside world.
It is tempting for a new psychotherapist to look for one objective truth when trying to understand the mind. Psychotherapists in training are often encouraged to align themselves with a particular theorist or theoretical framework, perhaps to provide them with clarity and direction for their clinical work. It might also help them to put together a neat case formulation and management plan. But I believe that most theories of psychology have some value and that experienced clinicians often do practise eclectically behind closed doors, despite the fact that it is not always encouraged. In addition to examining the context of the modern world the environment in which todays children are being raised this book focuses on current, up-to-date neurobiological, genetic, psychiatric, sociological, psychological and epidemiological research. This wide range of evidence-based research sheds light on some of the important aspects of childhood mental distress and psychiatric disturbances. In this way, the book positions itself across several different paradigms and ideological frameworks. But it also rests heavily on a psychoanalytic theoretical framework, opening up a multitude of possible meanings behind childhood mental distress. 2
Theoretical framework and evidence-based research
Finding the meaning in a childs disturbing behaviour is central in helping to resolve and ease mental distress - for the child and for the whole family. There are numerous substantial differences between a psychoanalytic approach and the cognitive behavioural framework. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy rests on the understanding that the unconscious mind plays an important role in mental state, emotions, thinking and behaviour. Cognitive behavioural therapy aims to change negative thinking patterns and behaviour without looking at the deeper motivation or meaning in the thoughts and the behaviour. A cognitive behaviourist views problematic behaviour as being learned and based on erroneous thoughts. Psychoanalytic theories go deeper into the mind than cognitive behaviourism, but they do not feature enough in the literature as a scientifically valuable contribution towards the management of childhood distress. 3 Research has been more prevalent in the area of cognitive behavioural therapy for certain interesting reasons - partly to do with issues around consistency of technique, methodological complexities and statistical analysis. Because of this, popular child psychology websites often recommend cognitive behavioural therapy as the treatment of choice for childhood distress. Although this theoretical framework has great value and importance, my experience of the psychoanalytic framework is that it allows for a deeper understanding of the complexity of the developing mind. 4
As a child psychologist, I do not locate myself within the confines of one particular theorist. Rather, both this book and my own clinical work are informed by many psychoanalytic writers and thinkers. Mark Solms, a Cape Town based psychoanalyst and author, has made significant contributions to existing knowledge by linking neuroscience and psychoanalytic thinking. This has brought what is often considered a soft science subject into the realm of evidence-based knowledge. In explaining the neurobiological underpinnings of psychoanalytic thinking, Solms draws from neuroscientists, who study the nervous system and the brain, such as Jaak Panksepp and Karl Friston. 5 He understands psychoanalytic theory as the study of the mind, emotions, feelings, subjectivity and consciousness. 6 His explanation of the neuroscientific basis of these elusive concepts rests on observable evidence despite the fact that emotions are difficult to measure because they are felt subjectively, from within the perspective of an