A psychoanalytic psychiatrist in the world of foster care

Recent developments in psychoanalytic developmental psychology offer a conceptual framework for understanding the effects of inadequate parenting on psychological development. The very need for foster care, almost by definition, usually indicates that parenting has been inadequate, and there fore children in foster care comprise a special population of developmentally handicapped individuals. Many of the problems that confront foster care agencies can be understood in terms of the individual child's psychological developmental arrest and its deleterious effect upon his or her ability to benefit from placement. Certain cultural factors within the community involved with foster care compound the problem. More clinically sophisticated service is therefore a key element in the remediation of many of the obstacles to adequate foster care services.Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Meeting of The American Psychoanalytic Association in Atlanta, Georgia, May 1978 and in New York City, December 1978.