Adolescence and Delinquency : An Object-Relations Theory Approach

Applies object-relations theory to a population for which the treatment du jour is increasingly cognitive-behavioral. Taking his lead from the delinquent adolescents in his practice, the author presents a treatment approach in which adolescents are related to as people, rather than as transitory objects passing through a 'stage'.

This book applies modern object relations theory—particularly the concept of intersubjectivity as articulated by Thomas Ogden—to a population for which the "treatment du jour" is increasingly cognitive-behavioral. Taking his lead from the delinquent adolescents in his practice, Dr. Brodie presents a treatment approach based on respect rather than condescension. Adolescents are related to as people, rather than as transitory objects passing through a ''stage.'' Rather than judging their feelings and behaviors as "aberrant," the author views them as having emerged out of the complex matrix of his patients'' lives. Adolescence and Delinqucney: An Object Relations Theory Approach is less an attempt to apply object relations theory to a particular population than it is an attempt to illuminate the seamlessness of theory and application. Theory and case examples are presented in a dialectical relationship, psychological theory having no meaning other than an attempt to understand real people, and the people we work with are unintelligible outside some systematic frame of reference.