Unique in its integrative approach, Normal Child and Adolescent Development: A Psychodynamic Primer is a thorough introduction to how development unfolds as a complex transactional process progressing through the first three decades of life. The book traces development from the prenatal period to emerging adulthood and embraces a nonlinear multisystem approach while maintaining the touchstones of traditional developmental phases. The authors maintain that all dynamically oriented practitioners use developmental theories as a framework for understanding their patients and for helping their patients understand themselves. A developmental scaffolding organizes the complexity of each patient's life story and supports the gradual process of psychodynamic exploration and meaning making.

Illustrated with vibrant clinical vignettes and online video illustrations that exemplify the various developmental stages in a rich and easily recognizable way, Normal Child and Adolescent Development: A Psychodynamic Primer is the only available text on human development from a psychodynamic point of view, and thus fills a critical gap by providing a contemporary, integrative, and psychodynamic approach to development.