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The use of children's religious ideas in their psychiatric evaluation

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Abstract

Children's religious ideas provide a source of projective material that can be relevant clinically in a child's psychiatric evaluation. Areas that are sometimes revealed include (1) information about the child's parental introjects; (2) level of superego formation; (3) level of defense formation; (4) areas that are most anxiety provoking for the child. This religious material is frequently ignored, but can be a particularly useful adjunct when the usual child-evaluative techniques do not reveal a complete picture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Medical School, USA

    Jacqueline Olds (Instructor in Clinical Psychiatry, Assistant Attending Psychiatrist, Associate in Child Psychiatry) & Alexandra M. Harrison (Clinical Fellow in Child Psychiatry, Head of Child Psychiatry)

  2. McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts

    Jacqueline Olds (Instructor in Clinical Psychiatry, Assistant Attending Psychiatrist, Associate in Child Psychiatry)

  3. Beth Israel Hospital, Boston

    Jacqueline Olds (Instructor in Clinical Psychiatry, Assistant Attending Psychiatrist, Associate in Child Psychiatry)

  4. Harvard Community Health Center, USA

    Alexandra M. Harrison (Clinical Fellow in Child Psychiatry, Head of Child Psychiatry)

Authors
  1. Jacqueline Olds
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  2. Alexandra M. Harrison
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Additional information

Her psychiatric training included an adult psychiatry residency at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston, and a child psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital, Belmont. Presently a candidate in the psychoanalytic institute, and in private practice.

Her psychiatric training included an adult psychiatry residency at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston, and a child psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital, Belmont. She is also a candidate in the psychoanalytic institute and in private practice.

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Olds, J., Harrison, A.M. The use of children's religious ideas in their psychiatric evaluation. J Youth Adolescence 11, 155–163 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01834710

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01834710

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