The parent-child mutual recognition model: promoting responsibility and cooperativeness in disturbed adolescents who resist treatment

This article addresses the problem of disordered youngsters who resist treatment and demonstrate irresponsible and uncooperative regressive behaviors. The dynamics by which parents become involved in overprotective, indulgent, or overcontrolling patterns of interactions with these youngsters are delineated by integrating theoretical conceptualizations from biopsychoso- cial systems theory and from relational psychoanalysis. A clinical model of focused work with the parents alone is introduced. The model involves the use of 2 lists of parental behaviors: a list of proscribed behaviors, representing growth-inhibiting messages to the adolescent, and a list of prescriptive behaviors, symbolizing growth-promoting messages targeted at the adolescent. The unilateral changes in the way parents react toward their adolescents are designed to allow the adolescent to experience differentiation, reciprocity, and responsibility in caring relationships.