Playful "moments" in psychotherapy.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Adolescent↗
Biomedical subjects
Henry Massie
Publications and source records attributed to Henry Massie.
My life is a longing: child abuse and its adult sequelae. Results of the Brody longitudinal study from birth to age 30.
The psychoanalytically oriented Brody longitudinal study has followed the psychological development of 76 individuals from birth to age 30. Ten suffered severe maltreatment in childhood in the form of rejection and/or physical abuse at the hands of one or both parents. This report describes the effects of child abuse on the emerging personalities of the children, as well as on their adult personalities and mental health. Specifically, as adults the maltreated children had significantly more psychiatric illness (typically depressions and anxiety disorders), less mature psychological defense mechanisms, more insecure mental representations of attachment to their parents as indicated by the adult attachment interview, and a lower Global Assessment of Functioning than their well-treated counterparts. Additionally, their prevailing moods were joyless. Case examples show the emergence of symptoms, personality disorders, and defenses over time, as well as the workings of ameliorating influences. Several of the maltreated children made relatively successful adaptations as adults, indicating children's potential for resilience. Resilience, however, may be a superficial concept, for, in this series of cases, seemingly adequate coping in formerly mistreated children always came at the price of emotional vulnerability and compromised potential.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Transition to young adulthood: a prospective study.
In this paper, the authors report on the transition to young adulthood (18-25) in the highest functioning 18 individuals in our cohort (GAF > or = 90) from a prospective longitudinal study of 76 lives followed from birth. These 18 individuals provide as clear a view as possible into the inner lives of people least distorted by psychopathology. This gives us a more crystalline photograph of psychic structure: the precipitant of family, society and psyche itself. Using a standard DSM IV criterion, Global Assessment Functioning (GAF), provides phenomenological homogeneity, but leaves us with heterogeneity of inner life. The 18 individuals had relatively rare drug or alcohol use and less sexual partners. Vocational functioning exceeded intimacy. Four had tumultuous pathways into adulthood. Nine were crossover cases, coming from sub-optimal mothering, with significant variation in gender distribution and intrapsychic structure. The paper discusses factors facilitating and inhibiting development and the nature of memories.
Adult↗
The relationship between mothering in infancy, childhood experience and adult mental health: results of the Brody prospective longitudinal study from birth to age 30.
This longitudinal study has followed seventy-six individuals from birth to age 30 using films of the mother-child interaction, psychoanalytically informed interviews of parents and children, and psychodiagnostic testing to assess how the quality of mothering a child receives in the first year of life contributes to his/her subsequent emotional well-being. The thirty-year follow-up of the now adult participants found that those who had received more effective care in infancy in terms of maternal empathy, consistency, control, thoughtfulness, affection and management of aggression had higher-level psychological defence mechanisms as adults than children receiving less effective nurturing--suggesting a process in which the children internalised their mothers' own defence mechanisms. Other measures at 30 years (Global Functioning, Erikson psychosocial attainment, mental representation of security of attachment to parents and presence or absence of a psychiatric diagnosis) did not achieve statistical significance. On the other hand, trauma after infancy and before age 18 provided the strongest correlation with adult outcome: consistent with the theory of the effect of cumulative trauma on psychic functioning, children experiencing two or more adverse circumstances had significantly lower levels of global functioning as adults than those spared multiple traumas. With case examples, the findings illustrate how the effect of pre-verbal experience attenuates over time, and how later influences overlie early life in the course of psychological structuralisation.
Adolescent↗