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Press coverage of chronic fatigue syndrome has amplified and distorted divisions in the research community concerning the chronic fatigue syndrome. Articles in the press concentrate on a simple medical model of illness reinforcing the stigma of psychological illness and dissatisfaction with traditional medical authority.

Dr. Hermine Hug-Hellmuth was the world's first practicing child psychoanalyst. From this vantage point of being the first person to apply psychoanalysis to the treatment of children, she was also the first person to make use of systematic child observation from a psychoanalytic point of view. In addition Dr. Hug-Hellmuth was among the very first of the lay adherents to psychoanalysis to practice psychoanalysis. Further, she was one of the first women to obtain a doctorate degree in physics from the University of Vienna. We see that in all these aspects, as a woman, with a lay education, practicing psychoanalysis with children and employing psychoanalytic child observation, she was the first, or among the very first. In this perspective her pioneer status becomes understood to be very important. Others followed and psychoanalysis grew and flourished as did the contributions and the stature of those who would become giants of psychoanalytic history. In part, it was in the shadows of these later giants that the memory of Dr. Hug-Hellmuth has faded.

This paper reviews the position of brief psychotherapies in child psychiatry. Brief psychotherapy with children and families has received less attention than similar work with individual adults. After reviewing literature on brief dynamic psychotherapy with children and their families, the authors describe an approach which developed in an outpatient child psychiatry team. After a brief assessment, a focal hypothesis and plan of treatment are concluded. A decision is made as to which unit (the family group, an individual, or a combination of individuals) would be most strategic to treat. The authors coin the phrase "focal treatment unit" to express this concept.