All too often, child psychotherapists design their theories and organize their therapeutic work around latency and adolescence, each in isolation. As a result, the period of the transition between latency and adolescence tends to lose in importance. This chapter will be devoted to the delineation of the transitional phenomena of late latency-early adolescence and the psychotherapeutic strategies involved in this period.

During latency, the presence of a sustained depressed affect and mood is not a mandatory feature for making the diagnosis of clinical depression. Even in the absence of a depressive affect there are signs and symptoms of depression in childhood.

This chapter covers the origins of early adolescent narcissism, the vulnerability of adolescent narcissism, the mobilization of omnipotence that salves injured narcissism, and the passing of omnipotence, with emphasis on the dynamic aspects of the process.

The ego organization of the latency-age child is different from the ego organization of the adolescent and adult, so much so, in fact, that the symptoms and behavior that are a product of its function can be depended upon, to a large extent, to disappear with the transition to adolescent and adult ego forms. Also covered in this chapter are the shaping of certain problem areas; emotional imprinting leading to later psychopathology; the development of the superego; and the genesis of masochism. Because the operative organs for the discharge of aggression are much more developed during latency than are those for the sexual drive, teasing and rough fantasy play provide a good venue in the search for the antecedents and underpinnings of adolescent masochism.

One of the tasks of the child therapist is to hasten as well as shepherd and encourage this natural process of development. The therapist who can detect the child’s bewilderment and clarify the sources of confusion helps to put the communicatively oriented developmental processes back on the track.

The sexual drive undergoes a remarkable degree of maturation and development from birth to about 15 years of age. In the first years of life, drive energies are involved in a search for pleasurable discharge, concentered all in self. In early childhood and latency, drives find outlet through channels dominated by fantasy. At puberty, an organ system specific for the drive matures, providing an outlet channel to conduct libidinal energies toward love objects, which are beyond the limits of the self. Finally, in late adolescence, there is a chance to establish an articulation of the drive and organ system with the needs of the object.

In this chapter, aspects of the development of cognition that are pertinent to psychotherapy during latency will be explored. An attempt will be made to integrate developmental cognitive information into the theories of personality that are used as the basis of psychotherapies for children aged 6 to 12.

The main focus of this chapter will be on a search for an understanding of the psychopathogenetic role of past experience and memory in sensitizing a child to find affect stimulation in current situations.

Psychotherapy of children is aimed at achieving repetition and mastery of remembered past traumas through the analysis of symbolization, play, and direct recall. Through this is achieved resolution of early- and latency-age conflicts, during latency. This chapter will provide an in-depth presentation of an important cognitive developmental step, that is, the shift in the polarity of symbols from the evocative to the communicative mode. This is an early sign of the shift from latency to adolescence.

Parents have a special influence on certain areas of development during the latency years. Cognitive styles of perception and understanding and the organization of memory take root in parental preferences, precepts, and examples that are conveyed to the child during the latency years.