ly disturbed child such as Anne because her ego functioning can be debilitated due to factors other than maladjustment. Specifically, developmental factors can be operative. In other words, at 12 years of age, Anne cannot really be expected to have attained strong levels of ego functioning because her ego is still under development. Therefore, to separate developmental causes of low ego functioning from psychopathological and social contributors is, at best, difficult and failure to do so can hamper the effectiveness of intervention.
Also, while scientific methods (e.g. administration of standardized assessment instruments) might be of help in arriving at a more precise and accurate diagnosis of Anne's condition, the verbal skills and cognitive development necessary for attaining deep insight from therapeutic interaction is definitely beyond Anne and, in fact, may be beyond most 12 year olds.
The approach does lend itself to family therapy which could be helpful to Anne. However, the treatment goals of the Psychosocial approach with
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