Unconscious sequences in child protection work: case studies of professionals' experiences of child removal

Abstract

This article examines two case studies from the author's supervision of professionals in a therapeutic setting in child protection, in circumstances where children were removed from the care of parents. Psychoanalytic ideas about the unconscious and the systemic notion of sequences are used in an analysis of the personal responses of the involved frontline professionals and the author. Particular attention is paid to the concepts of transference, counter transference, projection, repression and containment. The author argues that reflection using these ideas served a function of emotional containment for the professionals and supported complex connections with and understandings of the parents' responses and behaviour. Links are made between the analysis of these two case studies and current broader thinking about anxiety in child-protection systems and practice.

Keywords:

• unconscious
• child protection
• psychoanalysis
• child removal
• professionals' experiences
• case study

Notes

1 All names have been changed to preserve confidentiality.

2 It should be said here, for both practice examples, that the risk the parents posed to themselves was neither forgotten nor unaddressed.

3 An explanatory note, existing Child Protection Legislation in the Australian state where these case studies took place allows Departmental Caseworkers, irrespective of their departmental program area, to conduct emergency removals of children, without warrant or authority from a court, in circumstances where immediate risk of serious harm to children is identified.