Unexpected Gains: Psychotherapy with People with Learning Disabilities

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a new development in the treatment of people with learning disabilities and mental health problems, traditionally handled with behavioural management and limited counselling. The collected papers have evolved from the work of the pioneering Learning Disabilities Service at the Tavistock Clinic. Demonstrating the vast range of work undertaken by members of the service, covering treatment for children, adolescents and adults, it contains an in-depth look at life in residential settings and at audit and research.
This book is especially pertinent to those already engaged in work with this patient-group, and will also be of interest to general practitioners, students and also non-specialists.

The papers collected here draw on, elaborate and further explore this centrally important tradition of bringing psychoanalytic concepts to bear on the opaque, puzzling and painful states of mind of the learning disabled referred for psychotherapeutic help. These concepts are drawn from a range of professional experience, in particular, that of insight into the nature of early mother/infant interactions, and their special complexities where learning disability is concerned.
"The various chapters movingly and challengingly emphasise the impressive changes that can be achieved within the general framework of psychodynamic practice. The approach demonstrates how, through adaptations and innovations of technique, people and institutions can move towards a greater understanding of the almost unbearable difficulties of this group of patients, and also of their potentialities."– From the Series Editor’s Preface

Contributors include Annie Baikie, Marta Cioeta, Louise Emanuel, Lydia Hartland-Rowe, Nancy Sheppard, Sally Hodges, Maria Kakogianni, Pauline Lee, Victoria Mattison, Lynda Miller, Sadegh Nashat, Nancy Pistrang, Elisa Reyes-Simpson, David Simpson
Judith Usiskin