Some reflections on the role of maternal depression in child psychodynamic psychotherapy: a clinical case study

In this brief paper, I aim to highlight the most significant aspects of the psychotherapy conducted with a 10-year-old child within a public service setting over a period of 2 years. The clinical work initially followed a weekly schedule for the first 10 months and subsequently increased to twice-weekly sessions. I believe that the most pivotal element of this therapeutic process was the possibility of reconfiguring an internal world inhabited by the presence of a ’dead mother’ (Green, 1980), a construct that relates to the profound depression experienced by the child’s mother. This process allowed the child to open himself more fully to both his inner world and his peers. I can affirm that he reached the threshold of adolescence with newly developed capacities for affective investment in his objects. I believe that the internal transformations he underwent facilitated an intense and engaged encounter with the relational experiences offered by reality.