Table Of ContentTransforming Infantile Trauma
in Analytic Work with Children
and Adults
This vivid and moving volume presents the clinical work and writings of Alessandra
Cavalli, an internationally known child and adult psychoanalyst who taught and
supervised widely, ran infant observation seminars in the UK and Europe and was
closely involved in the development of child analysis training in Russia.
Informed by a deep knowledge of theory, each chapter draws on many strands of
both psychoanalytic and Jungian thought, integrating multiple analytic languages
into a coherent clinical language specific to Cavalli. The book includes 11 of her
most important papers about work with children and adults, with an introduction
by the distinguished Jungian psychoanalyst Warren Colman.
Her work was primarily concerned with the impact of trauma on the developing
self and the importance of weathering emotional storms in search of meaning,
and the book will be fascinating reading for clinicians of different psychoanalytic
approaches working with adults and children, as well as students of psychotherapy
and counselling.
Alessandra Cavalli, PhD, was an internationally known child, adolescent and
adult analyst who created a unique clinical model integrating Jung, Klein and
Bion. A training and supervising analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology
in London, she taught infant observation seminars and lectured and supervised
widely in the UK and abroad.
‘This collection of papers by Alessandra Cavalli is both intellectually wide-ranging
and clinically impressive. Her deep interest in and attention to early states of
mind and body, nourished particularly by her devotion to Infant Observation
and her experience of analysing traumatised young children, has enabled her
to propose fresh theoretical convergences between Jungian and post-Kleinian
concepts of development. Imagination and generosity characterise her clinical
writing, and make this book a pleasure to read as well as a stimulus to debate
about fundamental psychoanalytic theory. The book is an eloquent demonstration
of the creative bringing together of clinical practice with adults and children, in
the footsteps of Klein, Winnicott and Fordham.’
Margaret Rustin, child and adult psychotherapist at Tavistock
and Portman NHS Trust, and honorary member
of the British Psychoanalytic Society
‘Alessandra Cavalli’s work integrating infant observation, child and adult
analysis will be of immense interest to clinicians who work with early trauma
and its vicissitudes in the psyche of children and adults. Cavalli offers a much
needed and comprehensive integration of the work of Jung, Fordham, Klein, and
Bion. Her exploration of the nature and meaning of unconscious intersubjective
processes is both timely and profound, and will be invaluable to psychotherapists
and psychoanalysts.’
Brian Feldman, PhD, child, adolescent and
adult Jungian psychoanalyst, Palo Alto, CA
Transforming Infantile Trauma
in Analytic Work with
Children and Adults
The Clinical Writings of
Alessandra Cavalli
Edited by Martha Stevns and
Lucinda Hawkins
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Martha Stevns and Lucinda
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The right of Martha Stevns and Lucinda Hawkins to be identified
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-032-21465-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-21467-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-26853-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003268536
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
About the author viii
Editors’ biographies ix
Editors’ note x
Thinking the unthinkable: Trauma, defence and early
states of mind in the work of Alessandra Cavalli 1
WARREN COLMAN
1 Casper or ‘the cabinet of horrors’ 19
2 Power cut in the countertransference 34
3 On receiving what has gone astray, on finding
what has got lost 49
4 Transgenerational transmission of indigestible facts:
From trauma, deadly ghosts and mental voids
to meaning-making interpretations 60
5 From affect to feelings and thoughts:
From abuse to care and understanding 76
6 Clinging, gripping, holding, containment:
Reflections on a survival reflex and the development
of a capacity to separate 89
7 From not knowing to knowing: On early infantile
trauma involving separation 105
vi Contents
8 Giving voice to psychic pain: The British-Mexican
connection, on the vicissitudes of creating a home
for street children 119
9 Identification – obstacle to individuation, or: On how to
become ‘me’ 131
10 Noah’s Ark: Technical and theoretical implications
concerning the use of metaphor in the treatment
of trauma 146
11 Continuous becoming or the experience of coming
into being 161
Index 171
Acknowledgements
The author’s photograph is used by permission of Kay Marles.
The introduction is an edited version of a paper presented at the Second Inter-
national Conference in Jungian Child Analysis, Online, March 12–14, 2021.
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10 have been previously published in the Journal
of Analytical Psychology, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, and are used by permission
of the publisher.
Chapter 7 has been previously published in Transformation (Karnac, 2014;
Routledge, 1918) and is used by permission of the publisher.
Chapter 8 has been previously published in From Tradition to Innovation:
Jungian Analysts Working in Different Cultural Settings, Eds., C. Crowther &
J. Wiener. New Orleans: Spring Journal Books, 2015. Republished as Jun-
gian Analysts working across Cultures: From Tradition to Innovation, Eds.,
C. Crowther & J. Wiener. London and New York: Routledge, 2021, and is used by
permission of the publisher.
Chapter 11 is the transcript of a talk given at the conference on Childhood by
The Alpine Fellowship in Venice, 28 June 2018, and is used by permission of the
Alpine Fellowship, London. The talk is available on YouTube.
About the author
Alessandra Cavalli PhD (1957–2020) was a
child and adolescent, and adult analyst, who was
internationally active and influential. A training
and supervising analyst of the Society of Ana-
lytical Psychology in London, she drew from
many traditions, integrating Jungian and psy-
choanalytic language into a coherent clinical
model.
Born in Italy, she did undergraduate and post-
graduate studies in Germany. She worked in
Munich and Brussels before moving to London
where she did her analytic trainings. Fluent in
several languages, she taught and lectured inter-
nationally and shared her profound belief in the importance of early life in infant
observation seminars in the UK and Denmark. She did supervision in Hungary
and Bulgaria, and in Mexico supervised therapeutic work with children in care.
She was closely involved in the development of child analysis in Russia and was
one of the organizers of the first international conference for Jungian Child Analy-
sis, held in Russia in 2019. The second international conference, held in England
in 2021, was dedicated to her memory.
Editors’ biographies
Lucinda Hawkins is a Training Analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychol-
ogy in private practice in London and a member of the editorial board of the
Journal of Analytical Psychology. She was an editor at Studio International
and Grove Dictionary of Art and is co-author of Michelangelo (1991). With
Alessandra Cavalli and Martha Stevns, she co-edited Transformation: Jung’s
Legacy and Clinical Work Today (Karnac 2014/Routledge 2018).
Martha Stevns is a Training Analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology
in London and works in private practice in Cambridge, UK. She teaches,
supervises and runs Infant Observation Seminars. She was an editor at the
Swiss art magazine du. With Alessandra Cavalli and Lucinda Hawkins, she
co-edited Transformation: Jung’s Legacy and Clinical Work Today (Karnac
2014/Routledge 2018).
Contributor’s biography
Warren Colman is a Training and Supervising Analyst of the Society of
Analytical Psychology in London. He is a former UK Editor-in-Chief of the
Journal of Analytical Psychology and remains a member of the Journal’s
Editorial Board. He has published numerous clinical and theoretical papers on
topics including couple interaction, the self, archetypes, analytic process and
symbolic imagination. His book Act and Image: The Emergence of Symbolic
Imagination was published in 2016.
