Journal de neurologie et médecine pédiatriques

The Case of Jean: Releasing the Life Drives Buried in Trauma

Abstract

Cristina Lindenmeyer

The following article presents a clinical study of the psychic mechanisms in the case of a six yea old adopted boy. For this child, the loss of his helpful objects (his country, culture and friends) resulted in his psyche being caught up in a melancholic temptation, where the current experience of loss brought to light his previous losses and a fragile narcissism. The case raises clinical and psychopathological questions about the quality of his relationship to the internal object, the nature of his identifications and the formation of his superego, caught up in the melancholic position.