This book is concerned with an enigmatic set of experiences which theorists in the Object Relations tradition have characterised as regression to dependence, a return to a primitive, pre-verbal relational process presenting in some clients in psychotherapy. It highlights the effects of early infantile trauma resulting in the experience of failed dependency. Clients who present with chronic anxiety, relational failures and an inner emptiness are considered, and the opportunity for a therapeutic repair is explored with recommendations for the therapeutic stance being made. This book is aimed at psychotherapists, supervisors, trainers and trainees who will encounter such clients and those who will go on to offer them a therapeutic repair. It will also interest researchers interested in reflexivity and a heuristic approach to clinician as researcher. Written from an Integrative Psychotherapy perspective, it addresses the current absence of writing in the field from a Relational/Developmental viewpoint on concepts more usually addressed in psychoanalytic writing. The insights of Winnicott are particularly highlighted in relation to failed dependency and maternal failure. This work aims to offer a way forward to successfully work with this client group.
