Development in the Midst of Crisis

ABSTRACT

In response to the anchor articles of this issue, the author asks what it means to children if there is a crisis for democracy. She states that children’s and adolescents’ development is intimately bound up with their parents and their communities; children’s responses to helplessness in the face of the crises of pandemic, systemic injustice, and climate change can take either a constructive, progressive form (open system of self-regulation) or tend to a pathological acting out or withdrawal (closed system of self-regulation). Examples from different phases of development are offered. The author describes some aspects of the actual situation of children, with statistics demonstrating adults’ neglect and abuse. She suggests that adults bear responsibility for creating conditions that will allow children and adolescents to fulfill their creative potential constructively to address the challenges of the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Child development
• two systems
• pandemic
• climate change
• youth activism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kerry Kelly Novick

Kerry Kelly Novick is a child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst on the faculties of numerous psychoanalytic institutes around the United States. A founder of Allen Creek Preschool, she is past President of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis, a Councilor-at-Large for the American Psychoanalytic Association, and past Chair of the IPA Committee on Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis.