Pediatrics & Therapeutics
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0665
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2161-0665
+44 1478 350008
Elena Castro
Sociedad de Salud Mental, Chile
Keynote: Pediatr Ther
The aim of this article is to emphasize the necesity to protect the early psyque in premature new borns, separated from their mothers since birth. These babies survived and stayed alive thanks to a �??complex life saver incubator�?�, handled by a professional team. We will present clinical vignettes, that show some of the delicate menthal mecanisms that are observable, and also the emotional intensity that these babies are able to project in the observer. We will show how early deprivation of a maternal object can affect the incipient mind of a child. In January 2016 it started a one year experience using the Esther Bick´s Observational method in a multiprofessional team in a neonatology Unit. This team takes care of the babies and the idea is to help them internalize an emotional model in order to contain and work through the intense emotions that are awaken while taking care of these babies, without acting or be overwhelmed by them. This experience will open a road through which we are going to be able to hold alive the flame of the menthal life in these little patients, and also build a road to widen clinical research in this field.
Elena Castro was born in Santiago, Chile, at an extreme of the world, on February 1937. She studied Medicine at Universidad Católica de Chile. In the first promotion of women accepted to become medical doctors at this university, 1953 Years later she was certified as an American MD (ECFMG), but never went on to work abroad. She found Psychiatry as she was attending Medical School, and it has been her concern ever since. She acquired a degree as child and adolescent psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna. During this time she completed her psychoanalysis training at the Chilean Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). Years later, she is also recognised as a child and adolescent psychoanalyst having completed the training approved by the International Psychoanalytic Association. After years of work dedicated to private practice, teaching at the Institute of the Chilean Psychoanalytic Association and giving seminars and supervisions to wider audiences, she focuses her attention on very early childhood, with the idea that special care for babies, is fundamental for a healthy mental development later on. She has been interested, for many years, in the Bick method of baby observation. She is now a member of the International Association of Baby Observation Bick, AIDOBB. She has long participated as a psychoanalyst in several activities at the Neonatology Service in the Hospital San José de Santiago.
E-mail: draecastro@vtr.net