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The struggle for identity in the analysis of a late adolescent girl

This paper explores the struggle in the search for identity in the analysis of a mixed-race adolescent girl and its links to unconscious identifications as they emerge through the lens of her dreams. The significant function of the analytic setting in the early stages of identification with the analyst’s body and mind is explored, as a change in the setting was experienced by the patient as a breakdown of everything that had held her together. Although this was powerfully acted out in a negative therapeutic reaction, leading to the premature termination of this analysis, the patient was able to achieve some integration through the work of dreams. The author draws attention to theoretical perspectives on identification in normal developmental processes as well as in pathological processes that prevent psychic growth and integration.

Dr Petya Petkova is a fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London and the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has over 25 years of experience in the NHS in General Adult, Specialist Adult and Child and Adolescent Services. She now works as a psychoanalyst in a full-time private practice in London.

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