The Replacement Child

In this conference, Kristina Schellinski, a Jungian analyst, will be citing from her book, “Individuation for Adult Replacement Children. Ways of Coming into Being” (2019) and will outline her ideas on the ‘replacement child’ through illuminating images, Jungian literature, and examples of famous historical figures who were replacement children. Andrea Sabbadini, a psychoanalyst, known for his scholarly publications on the experience of loss as depicted in the arts and cinema, as well as through his published work entitled The Replacement Child (in the text Boundaries and Bridges, 2014), will present a psychoanalytic account of the diverse ways the replacement child condition can manifest in adult life.  The speakers will address how replacement child dynamics can leave a person with a confusing and fragmented identity, relational difficulties, and sense of existential insecurity. Through clinical material, we will learn the significance of recognising this condition and how these unconscious themes can be sensitively considered within the therapeutic relationship.