“Who are you?” asked the little prince, and added, “You are very pretty to look at.” “I am a fox,” the fox said. “Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince... “I cannot play with you,” the fox said, “I am not tamed.”... “What does that mean—‘tame’?” “It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. “It means to establish ties.” “To establish ties?” “Just that,” said the fox. “To me you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world...”... “What must I do to tame you? asked the little prince. “You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First you will sit down at a little distance from me... I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me every day....” (Saint-Exupéry, 1943, p. 65–66)
Abstract
Children with developmental disorders have ego deficits which must be addressed before one is able to work with them in traditional dynamic clinical treatment. A review of the literature explores the distortions in personality structure which accompany developmental disorders, a conceptual paradigm for integration of psychodynamic and social learning theory models for understanding this problem, and suggestions for working with these children and their families. Three specific ego functions must be repaired in the initial stages of treatment: control of drive activity, reality testing, and the capacity for identification. Two case examples are used to illustrate how the worker may repair deficits in these ego functions.
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Ms. Gruber is in private practice
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Gruber, C. Repairing ego deficits in children with developmental disorders. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 4, 50–63 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00757869
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00757869