This volume offers very specific illustrations of psychoanalytic ways of thinking and working in both clinical and pedagogical contexts with children. It is designed for professionals who work with infants, children, and adolescents, and who are seeking modes of working that respects emotions, that embrace context, and that privilege imagination and possibility. For professionals who already practice in ways that are sympathetic to these modes of working, the scholarly underpinning of this work offers a rationale for taking a stand in favor of emotionally focused, child-centered work and in opposition to systems that negate the lives of children. This book is for caring professionals who devote their lives to creating spaces for children to find their own paths and is intended to serve as a source of sustenance and support for such work.

The Invulnerable Child explores the intriguing and sometimes baffling phenomenon of children's capacity to deal with adversity. Survivors, strivers, and thrivers make up the unusual population of children who respond so unexpectedly to the onslaughts of calamity. Integrating the rapidly expanding body of knowledge about these children and focusing on the patterns of recovery that emerge, this groundbreaking volume thoroughly examines the determinants of risk, the development of competence in the midst of hardship and the nature of stress-resilience under conditions of extreme vulnerability.