A BODY FOR 2 - OBSERVATIONS ON CHRONICALL Y ILL ADOLESCENTS AND THEIRMOTHERS

Concepts of the psychoanalytical object relationship theory, in partic ular McDougall's concept of ''one body for two''. are described and an alyzed using clinical case material. The mother-child relationship of young people afflicted with diabetes mellitus is examined. Special att ention is given to any inability of the mother in supporting the child 's requirement for autonomy as described by McDougall (1987) in her an alysis of psychosomatically ill patients. A case study is presented, w hich illustrated that the occurrence of a chronic, somatic illness in adolescence can initiate or regressively reactivate previous pathologi cal mother-child relationship patterns.