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This paper extends concepts from infant research and intersubjective systems theory to couples treatment. Infant research views human development as taking place in a two-person developmental system, in which the caregiver and the infant coordinate to foster infant development. Couples treatment is by analogy seen as a three person developmental system. Systems based psychoanalytic theories are applied to the couple/therapist system, particularly in regard to the oscillation between hoped-for selfobject experiences and feared repetitive experiences. Infant research has shown that the origin of our sense of self, others, and self-with-others emerges from the ongoing, largely nonverbal, dialogue between infants and caregivers. The attachment security from infancy is reorganized by adult relationships. The therapist looks to help partners (1) repair disruptions when they occur, (2) recognize each other and in turn feel recognized and (3) have greater ability to reflect or mentalize on their partner's and their own mental states. The "back and forth weave" of the therapist's attention is shown to have particular salience in fostering development. The paper concludes with a case example of how a single look or expression disrupts the couples enjoyment of an anticipated day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The London‐based Oily Cart theatre company aims to produce shows that are suitable for all young people. This paper closely examines one of their productions, Splish Splash, which was developed for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties. The paper's central purpose is to understand the value of this type of theatrical experience for these children. It argues that Winnicott's conception of play, and his account of the conditions that enable the capacity for play to unfold, provide a persuasive theoretical framework that makes sense of Oily Cart's achievement. Winnicott's framework can integrate the views expressed (in interviews) by adults who were involved with or observed the show; arguably it is also corroborated by more recent infant research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attraverso una sorta di ‘viaggio nel tempo’, questo lavoro vuole darsi il compito di presentare un breve aggiornamento sui più recenti sviluppi del concetto di ‘cura del soggetto’ in psicoanalisi. In particolare, si pone qui l’accento sulla visione terapeutica che caratterizzava gli albori di questa disciplina, sostanzialmente orientata in senso unidirezionale dal terapeuta al paziente, e sul suo passaggio alla prospettiva attualmente invece dominante, che è diversa in quanto si fonda invece sul concetto di ‘mutualità’. In tale più recente visione, i cambiamenti nel tempo dell’assetto psichico del paziente traggono origine dai cambiamenti che il paziente stesso ha, per lo più inconsapevolmente, a sua volta prodotto nel tempo nell’assetto psichico del terapeuta che si è occupato e si sta occupando di lui. Tutto ciò sulla base di concetti e modelli che sono entrati nella sfera di interesse delle psicoanalisi soltanto in questi ultimi decenni, quali ad esempio la ‘Teoria del caos’ e le varie teorie sistemiche che si sono sviluppate a partire dalla ‘Teoria generale dei sistemi’ di Ludwig Von Bertalanffy sino ai più recenti modelli di interpretazione dei ‘Sistemi complessi dinamici non lineari’.

Through a sort of 'journey in time', this work aims to present a brief update on the latest developments on the subject of 'care of the subject' in psychoanalysis. In particular, the emphasis is placed on the therapeutic vision that characterized the early days of this discipline, which was essentially oriented in a single direction from the therapist to the patient, and on its shift to the current dominant perspective, which is different in that it is instead based on the concept of 'mutuality'. In this more recent view, the changes in the psychic structure of the patient over time derive from the changes that the patient has, mostly unknowingly, produced over time in the psychic structure of the therapist who has taken care of and is taking care of him/her. All this occurs on the basis of concepts and models that have only entered the sphere of interest of psychoanalysis in recent decades, for example, the 'Theory of Chaos' and the various systemic theories that have developed from Ludwig von Bertalanffy's 'General system Theory' to the most recent models of interpretation of 'complex nonlinear dynamical systems'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lege Artis Medicine (LAM) is the property of LifeTime Media Kft. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This peer commentary emphasizes the importance of implementing more sophisticated analytical techniques in infant research. It provides examples of information extracted from classical paradigms, the habituation–dishabituation paradigm, the visual pair preference task and the visual expectation paradigm, by means of models such as a latent variables mixture model. Although modelling techniques have been implemented in infant research for many years, they have always been a marginal phenomenon because infant data were mainly analysed using mean level comparisons. This commentary outlines the principal advantage of modelling infant behavioural data: there is no other way to obtain information on behaviour and its development at the individual infant level than through a model, and models can be adapted to the specific requirements of an experimental setting's data. However, there are expenses to such techniques: it takes time both to build and to understand a model for a specific experimental setting, and both data and code need to be made available (and thus readable, i.e. following certain style requirements). If as a field, we do not refrain from investing such time, modelling approaches can be a very useful tool for a more reliable infant research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article 'Six solutions for more reliable infant research' by Byers‐Heinlein et al. proposes six solutions to improve upon the reliability of infant research. The present commentary supports and expands upon the sixth solution, 'Conduct more sophisticated analyses'. This commentary first focuses on group‐level, traditional analytic techniques that infant research has predominantly relied on over the last several decades. Details are provided to expand upon measurement errors in these types of analyses. The second focus is on individual‐level, more sophisticated statistical analyses, such as mixed‐effects models and structural equation modelling. Details are provided to expand upon how measurement error can impact these types of analyses. Throughout the commentary and in its conclusion, this commentary provides ways in which the other five solutions proposed can contribute to the sixth solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their target article, Byers‐Heinlein, Bergman and Savalei describe the neglected challenge of measurement reliability in infancy research. In this commentary, we elaborate on the problem of measurement reliability and demonstrate the problem it poses when using looking time measures to assess individual differences in infancy. We endorse the solutions Byers‐Heinlein et al. propose to increase measurement reliability. In particular, we encourage the field to develop more reliable measures of individual differences infant looking time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alessandro Gigante, 48, teacher of Italian and Latin at a high school in Rome: I took my degree in psychology after undertaking an 8-year psychoanalysis as a patient with Gianni Nebbiosi. I was fascinated by psychoanalysis and I remained very attached to Gianni who, together with Susi, were my teachers during the 4 years of specialization school in psychotherapy at Isispé. I became a psychoanalyst to try to offer others the same opportunities for awareness, freedom, relationship, listening, affection and understanding that I have received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In "Amazing Grace," the author provides a lens through which we are able to view the current upheaval of our time. A unique clinical hour is described initiating the evolving trajectory of the song and notion of "Amazing Grace" based on three "case studies" or "stories": the story of Patient M., the story of John Newton, and the story of the song as a transcendent entity unto itself. Offered is a theoretical, in-depth analysis of the case, the music, and the archetypal patterns reverberating from the microcosmic dyadic level to the macrocosmic collective. The author weaves a complex tapestry of the necessity of grief, lamentation, and paradox and play expressed through neuroscience, mythology, politics, and art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black Lives Matter and the recent protests have focused attention on questions of racism, racial bias and implicit bias. After a brief discussion of these terms, this paper looks to infant research to see what experiences might dispose of development toward an openness toward diversity or to a bias against it. Positive and negative responses are built into the infant. But research shows that a diverse environment of positive and negative experiences is optimal for development. A variety of evidence from the worlds of infant research and attachment theory is cited. The idea that racism or racial bias is based on a longing for an earlier state of oneness or symbiosis is contradicted by research. Longings for a non-diverse world are seen as an adult fantasy, one that is encouraged and exploited by structures of subjugation. A case vignette is offered of a mixed-race couple in which long-simmering issues of racism and sexism surface in the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This article and the four videos linked to this article are a result of the earliest experiences in establishing an international research collaboration among seven countries in the Project Social and emotional experiences in transition through the early years. We draw attention to the complex issues surrounding the many processes, beliefs and attitudes about infants in research that permeated our processes of gaining ethical approval for the international study and which posed many challenges for our project. Through a process of reflective analysis, we have identified a range of ethical tensions and issues which the different countries involved in this international study faced in gaining ethical approval from their institutional ethical committees for their collaborative participation. More specifically, we identify one persistent tension concerning the use of video data in research on young children. This tension is a result of diverse interpretations of international ethical codes, alongside local restrictions and ethics review processes. It illuminates various positions concerning the protection of infants’ privacy versus the benefits of using non-anonymous video data both in joint analysis, and even further, in open publishing. Such positions have been widely debated in research with adults, whereupon many of the ethically challenging questions have been dealt with through processes of acquiring informed consents from the participants. In case of infants, however, the role and nature of informed consents is different from research with adults, as is the role of the adult in using infant ‘data’ in research. For most cases, informed consents are acquired from the parents or the legal guardians that are not necessarily present on a day-to-day basis in the actual data collection process in early years educational settings. The question of children’s own assents for study is widely debated and this is no less so in the project we present in this paper. On the basis of the experiences in this international collaboration, and the challenges and tensions identified in between diverse cultural context and ethical review boards and practices, we propose that more dialogue in relation to research ethics on video research is needed within the diverse research communities and contexts, both locally and internationally. The dialogue is important to include also the representatives from the ethical committees, as the new (open) mediums for publishing are becoming more relevant and promising. Most important, ultimately, is the dialogue among the research participants, including where possible infants as contributors in their own right (as opposed to vulnerable subjects), and researchers in all phases of the research process.

Tummy time involves placing an infant in a prone position to help build muscle strength. Pediatricians recommend tummy time because it helps with infant development related to milestones such as crawling, rolling over, and sitting up. However, parents sometimes avoid tummy time due to whining or crying when the infant is placed in the prone position. The current study compared two interventions incorporating preferred leisure items (i.e., varied or constant) for five typically developing infants to increase head elevation and decrease negative vocalizations during tummy time. Improvements occurred in infant performance regardless of the preferred items used. In addition, the mothers who implemented the tummy time procedures found the treatment to be socially valid and were more likely to select the use of the constant item when given the opportunity to choose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the "moving along process" toward "moments of meeting" identified in the Boston Process of Change Study Group's "Something More" paper. Insights from infant research–Tronick's dynamic description of "match, mismatch, and repair" and Beebe's model of vocal rhythm coordination–will be used to explore the "moving along process" that can lead to a "moment of meeting". These theoretical considerations will be illustrated with clinical material from the psychoanalytic treatment of a 3-4 year-old boy. The author suggests that these insights into psychoanalytic process derived from infant observation research are useful to understanding therapeutic change and may in some ways be more helpful than focusing on a specific psychoanalytic theory or technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychoanalytic innovation is easy to recognize but difficult to define. There is a dearth of literature exploring the nature of innovation in our field. My main thesis is that psychoanalytic innovation can be of two types. Psychoanalytic innovation of the first order is about new discoveries concerning facts related to the psyche, development, transference relations, or psychopathology. It usually emerges as a development of insights from canonical psychoanalytic theory; offers an original explanation for a choice of empirical psychic phenomena hitherto unexamined; is perceived as creative and useful when it succeeds to reconceptualize the relations between the patient’s past, unconscious dynamics, and the transference relations; often resembles poetic expression; and registers a truth we knew but did not yet put into words. When it is of the second order, psychoanalytic innovation challenges either methodological or philosophical assumptions held by psychoanalysis, without pretending to replace existing theories. It constitutes a “sensibility” that its adherents strive to incorporate into the existing corpus. I distinguish between two types of sensibilities: cultural -philosophical sensibility represented by the relational approach; and methodological sensibility represented by infant research, and neuropsychoanalysis. In the last part of the paper I analyze psychoanalytic progress pointing to its merits and shortcomings.

Psychoanalytic innovation is easy to recognize but difficult to define. There is a dearth of literature exploring the nature of innovation in our field. My main thesis is that psychoanalytic innovation can be of two types. Psychoanalytic innovation of the first order is about new discoveries concerning facts related to the psyche, development, transference relations, or psychopathology. It usually emerges as a development of insights from canonical psychoanalytic theory; offers an original explanation for a choice of empirical psychic phenomena hitherto unexamined; is perceived as creative and useful when it succeeds to reconceptualize the relations between the patient's past, unconscious dynamics, and the transference relations; often resembles poetic expression; and registers a truth we knew but did not yet put into words. When it is of the second order, psychoanalytic innovation challenges either methodological or philosophical assumptions held by psychoanalysis, without pretending to replace existing theories. It constitutes a "sensibility" that its adherents strive to incorporate into the existing corpus. I distinguish between two types of sensibilities: cultural -philosophical sensibility represented by the relational approach; and methodological sensibility represented by infant research, and neuropsychoanalysis. In the last part of the paper I analyze psychoanalytic progress pointing to its merits and shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether the therapeutic relationship in music therapy with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder predicts generalized changes in social skills. Participants (4–7 years, N = 48) were assessed at baseline, 5 and 12 months. The therapeutic relationship, as observed from session videos, and the generalized change in social skills, as judged by independent blinded assessors and parents, were evaluated using standardized tools (Assessment of the Quality of Relationship; ADOS; SRS). Linear mixed effect models showed significant interaction effects between the therapeutic relationship and several outcomes at 5 and 12 months. We found the music therapeutic relationship to be an important predictor of the development of social skills, as well as communication and language specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research with infants is often slow and time-consuming, so infant researchers face great pressure to use the available participants in an efficient way. One strategy that researchers sometimes use to optimize efficiency is data peeking (or "optional stopping"), that is, doing a preliminary analysis (whether a formal significance test or informal eyeballing) of collected data. Data peeking helps researchers decide whether to abandon or tweak a study, decide that a sample is complete, or decide to continue adding data points. Unfortunately, data peeking can have negative consequences such as increased rates of false positives (wrongly concluding that an effect is present when it is not). We argue that, with simple corrections, the benefits of data peeking can be harnessed to use participants more efficiently. We review two corrections that can be transparently reported: one can be applied at the beginning of a study to lay out a plan for data peeking, and a second can be applied after data collection has already started. These corrections are easy to implement in the current framework of infancy research. The use of these corrections, together with transparent reporting, can increase the replicability of infant research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper integrates empirical developmental research with the clinical theory and treatment of sadomasochism. Three strands of argument illustrate the thesis that sadomasochistic relatedness develops from relational procedures originating in the mother-infant dyad. The first strand involves attachment research including data from infancy to adulthood and videotaped microanalyses of infant-mother dyads. The second strand addresses research on mentalization and its relationship to attachment. These strands suggest that sadomasochistic relatedness exists on continua from minor to severe as attachment modes move from secure to insecure to disorganized, and from the capacities for mentalized to prementalized recognition of the self and other. Specific relational procedural models representing insecure and disorganized attachment involve the regulation of contradictory emotions, motives, and messages conveyed through varied sensory modalities. These models suggest dissociative procedural ways of being with the other and managing internal states. They are incorporated into and shaped by later development. The third strand uses a clinical case to deepen these constructs, and illustrate the use of knowledge from infant research in work with adults. The discussion addresses the relationship of mother-infant interactions with sadomasochism and how sadomasochistic procedural relational models may contribute to the formation of sadomasochistic relatedness at different developmental levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which Psychodynamic Model to Reconstruct the Origin of Personal Identity? - Which psychodynamic model should serve as the fundamental reference in discussing the ontogenesis of personal identity? In this commentary, one of Barbieri’s implicit assumptions will be discussed. He relies on the theories of several authors like Bion, Mahler, Lacan and Stern, using their suggestions as convergent elements in a unified proposal concerning human psychological development. Nevertheless, many of these authors outlined very different models of the psychological birth of the infant and his/her relationship with the object, which means in psychoanalysis the “significant other”. Some recent contributions to Infant Research will be mentioned as well.

This article analyses two interrelated aspects of the phenomenological body - the fact of allowing a basic individuation and its being socially oriented from the beginning. To do that, I first present Scheler's theories on the lived body, focusing on the notions of Leibschema and of a primary individuation. I then assess Scheler's theory of the "undifferentiated flux" to show that it is only a prima facie impasse, and that an implicit body schema is present from birth; this seems to apply to the infant studies that find in newbors a "level 1" of detachment from the environment and an embodied selfawareness (Rochat, Fogel). However, the body schema shows an intrinsic relational aspect too. In the third part, I propose to apply Scheler's theory of the direct perception of expressivity to the psychological theories of an innate intersubjectivity (Trevarthen) and a core intersubjectivity (Stern). Moreover, the development of pre-linguistic infants seems to be possible thanks to lived-body and expressive interactions, that show co-regulation (Fogel) and affective attunement (Stern) in interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moral psychology once regarded ethics of care as a promising theory. However, there is evidence to suggest that nowadays moral psychology completely ignores ethics of care’s various insights. Moreover, ethics of care’s core concepts – compassion, dependence, and the importance of early relations to moral development– are no longer considered to be relevant to the development of new theories in the field. In this paper, I will firstly discuss some of the reasons which, over recent years, have contributed to the marginalization of the role of ethics of care in moral psychology. Next, I will show that ethics of care’s most promising idea centered on the care given to an infant and the importance of that care to the development of moral thinking. In this context, I will be describing the implications of John Bowlby’s attachment theories, infant research, findings in moral psychology and neuroscience. I will argue that ethics of care needs to be radically re-thought and replaced by a psychology of care, an attachment approach to moral judgment, which would establish the centrality of the caregiver’s role in moral development. The philosophical implications of this approach to the understanding of the 'rationalists’’ and ‘intuitionists’’ debate about the true nature of moral judgment is also discussed.

Dropout of infants in looking time studies sometimes occurs at high rates, raising concerns that the representativeness of the final sample might be reduced in comparison to the originally obtained sample. The current study investigated which infant characteristics play a role in dropout. Infants were presented with a preferential looking task at 6 and 9 months of age. At 9 months of age, an additional habituation task and a subsequent novelty preference task were conducted. In addition, temperament was assessed via the Infant Behavior Questionnaire - Revised (IBQ-R, Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003), and cognitive developmental status was assessed via the Cognitive Scale of the Bayley Scale of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID-III, Bayley, 2006). Dropout was positively related to the IBQ-R temperament scales Distress to Limitations and Approach, and negatively related to the scales Falling Reactivity and Cuddliness. The representativeness of the final sample regarding situation-specific temperament dimensions is affected by dropout. Dropout was not related to cognitive developmental status as measured via the BSID-III, habituation speed and novelty preference. Dropout at 6 months of age was associated with dropout at 9 months of age. We concluded that in looking time studies, the representativeness of the final sample regarding performance-relevant temperament dimensions or cognitive developmental status is not affected by dropout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: psychoanalysis; infant research; neuropsychoanalysis; CBT; attachment theory EN psychoanalysis infant research neuropsychoanalysis CBT attachment theory 1 2 2 12/13/21 20211209 NES 211209 Psychoanalysis is not isolated from the scientific and cultural world. Psychoanalysis, infant research, neuropsychoanalysis, CBT, attachment theory In "Clinical Applications of Neuropsychoanalysis: Hypotheses Toward an Integrative Model", Mosri explores clinical applications of neuropsychoanalysis mainly based on affective neuroscience to propose an analysis of emotions that may contribute to the gradual development of a neuropsychoanalytically informed psychotherapy. [Extracted from the article]

This discussion reviews the subjective experience of analysts encountering enactment in clinical practice and the various attempts which have been made to maintain therapist coherence under the destabilizing effects of their own unconscious intersubjective process. The discussion includes descriptions of the phenomenal experience of enactment and a variety of responses to that experience. Also, the issue of how the subjective experience might be reported and conveyed in sharable language is examined, especially with reference to the use of metaphor as a potential bridge between subjects. Questions are raised as to whether process or content variables contribute more to coherence of mind and which relationship variables are more salient. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an overview of anxiety theories including the latest findings from perinatal and infant research will be explored from a holistic perspective. The body psychotherapy approach to anxiety problems will then be illustrated with case vignettes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psychotherapie Forum is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

My premise is that a 'layered' approach is necessary to understand the process of exchanges that result in therapeutic change. I imagine these processes occurring in three layers – although the number of domains in which change is taking place is actually infinite – such as in a sandwich. The top layer, or top slice of bread of the sandwich, represents a broad view of the change process; it is non-linear and includes the feature of uncertainty, a general principle of dynamic systems theory. The middle layer, or the meat of the sandwich, is explained by theories that are immediately and clinically useful to a therapist, such as psychoanalytic theories. These are primarily linear theories and use language and symbols to 'tell a story of what happened'. The bottom layer, or bottom slice of bread of the sandwich, is the micro-process; this layer includes the moment-to-moment patterns of coordinated rhythms that both communicate meaning and provide the essential scaffold for all higher-level change processes. The micro-process also requires a non-linear theory to make sense of its variability and emergent properties. Taking a bite out of the sandwich will include a 'polysemic bundle of communicative behaviors' (Harrison and Tronick, 2011). I will illustrate the 'sandwich model' with the clinical case of the analytic treatment of a 5 year-old boy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over three decades ago, John Bowlby argued for psychoanalysis to seek beyond its own parameters if it was to maintain its claim to be a science. Since then there has been a wealth of relevant research from various fields. While this has been instrumental in the development of my own work, this paper concerns learning from the patient. The paper begins with a premise: interpretative analytic work requires three-dimensionality (self, other and object). Although interpretative work may be ingrained in our professional identity, this triangulation may or may not exist in our patients in any stable way. The paper continues with a brief developmental account of how early archetypally-shaped shifts in the infant's field of interest establish the experiential components of three-dimensionality. From there, observational and clinical material with a toddler and a young boy describe how early relational deficits hindered their capacities for three-dimensionality. Yet both were able to engage with the therapist and to become active in the creation of three-dimensionality within their own minds. Implied in this work are considerations for working with patients for whom interpretations do not work. Michael Fordham's comments on 'working out of the self' are linked with the art of what we do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author proposes that the original propositions of the relational psychoanalysis could be further developed through new findings from infant research allowing a stronger bilateral view of mother-infant interactions. The same findings also caused a revision of the attachment theory, introducing the idea that the experience of attachment could be grounded in a primary bidimensional pragmatic experience of engagement and disengagement, in contrast with the traditional formulations that stressed the idea of secure attachment as a refuge from fear. The discovery of ubiquitous bilateral micro dynamics of alignment and tuning between individuals from infancy to adulthood allows a new pragmatic view about language as an instrument to open and to close conflicts, to initiate, to coordinate and to maintain the stability of the exchanges. Thus, the language can be investigated in order to define the relational strategies and the relational models of the mind. Finally, a research is presented that combines the results of the ECR-R test of Fraley and Waller with the results of the natural language test PVM of Seganti. The research highlighted some significant correlations between the two dimensions of avoidance and anxiety of the ECR-R and the two modes of expression "pretend" and "must" in an autobiographical narrative about a relational crisis, analyzed thorough the PVM method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two patients in long-term intensive psychotherapy, both engaged at a deep transference level, are compared. The author explores two questions: First, 'What is essential for a therapeutic process to take place?'; and second, 'What contemporary theoretical models are useful in conceptualizing that process?' Six clinical/theoretical categories are delineated: (1) the quality of attachment to the therapist, (2) the nature of the transference, (3) interpretation, (4) patient and therapist personal attributes and life circumstances that facilitate and inhibit the process, (5) the responsibilities of both patient and therapist, and (6) how to conceptualize growth and what criteria to use to determine whether it has occurred. The final section discusses the self psychological theories that best explain these two patients: Kohut (selfobject theory and the nuclear self); Stern and the Boston Process Change Study Group (implicit relational knowing); Lachmann and Beebe (co-constructed interactions); and Shane, Shane, and Gayles (nonlinear systems theory). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results from a longitudinal study on factors influencing conscience development contributed to our appreciation of the importance of moral internalization for a child's well-being. In this article we first present a summary of the research on moral development in children, includingflndings from infant research, with emphasis on the work of Robert N. Emde. Characteristics of classical psychoanalytic theory about superego development are compared with more recent insights. This is followed by a short description of two cheating games-as a measure of conscience development- played with 101 preschoolers. Some contrasts in our empirical data between the fair-play group and the children that cheated are presented and discussed in the light of the theoretical points of view. Finally some reflections on future research and the implications for parenting, prevention and clinical work are followed by suggestions for psychoanalytic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from Freud's Project, the author proposes a model of cerebral development whose sensory-motor structure is defined by a frontal-occipital oscillatory dynamic with a twofold function: the oscillation explains the formation and maintenance of mother-infant attunement in cerebral growth, while, at the same time, also explaining the functioning of the projective-introjective dynamic at the basis of psychoanalytic theory. The oscillatory dynamic, according to this perspective, operates as a 'bridge' between two seminal theoretical models of developments-the psychoanalytic and the infant research model-which, in turn, leads to the formulation of some neurological hypotheses on how oscillation regulates the elaboration of maternal interaction in the infant's brain, and how the mother may act to modify it. The paper discusses how the oscillatory dynamic offers an innovative framework for the reconceptualization of the development of mentalization, the function of mirror neurons, and, most interestingly, of the development of language, explaining the non-verbal properties of ordinary linguistic communication and the function of oscillation in the regulation of information exchange processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relational psychoanalysis, a relatively new and evolving school of psychoanalytic thought, is considered by its founders to represent a “paradigm shift” in psychoanalysis. The relational approach, initiated by the publication of Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell's book, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory in 1983, has developed into a movement with its own substantially separate literature. This paper reviews both the history and theoretical origins of the relational movement, as well as important theoretical premises and viewpoints now associated with the relational school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses the author's involvement with contemporary self psychology. Beginning from a traditional Freudian background, the author's history is traced to her current psychoanalytic interest in applying infant research to adult treatment. A case example is provided illustrating the interweaving of the verbal/explicit and nonverbal/implicit dimensions of working with a patient traumatized following the World Trade Center disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the integration of self psychology with findings from infant research and neuroscience. While Kohut's psychology of the self provides a useful theoretical model for psychoanalytic practice, aspects of infant research and neuroscience offer specificity and nuance to basic self-psychological concepts. Kohut proposed that self-psychological psychoanalysis ameliorates derailed development through patient–analyst interaction, while a listening stance of empathic immersion begins the curative process of derailed development and sets the stage for reparative psychoanalytic work. Findings from infant research delineate much more specifically the nature of attunement both in early mother–infant and analyst–patient interactions. Findings from neuroscientific research delineate how early mother–infant experiences are encoded in implicit memory and explicates the emotional substrate of affects and feelings. This emotional substrate exists at birth and provides a means of communication both in infancy and adulthood. Additionally, infant research delineates the mutuality of the interactive process. Thus, both infant research and neuroscience add subtlety and nuance to basic self-psychological concepts. This subtlety opens up new ways of understanding patients and expands the clinical repertoire. Three clinical vignettes demonstrate how this nuance and expansion of self-psychological concepts are applied in the context of an ongoing psychoanalytic treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the self as Fordham came to conceive it after a conceptual analysis of Jung's use of the term. Fordham identified a contradiction in Jung's usage, and resolved it by reserving ‘self’ for a definition of the psychosomatic entirety of the individual, and using a separate term for referring to expressions of the self in human experience (e.g. symbols). Fordham tentatively suggested that the latter be termed the ‘central archetype’, although this was neither developed nor dropped. I explore the value of this term from a developmental perspective and, more specifically in terms of the deintegration of psyche out of an early psychosomatic unity. This draws upon infant research and an observation of a 14-month old boy. Finally, further developments are briefly described and illustrated, whereby pre-symbolic expressions of the central archetype become symbolic and come to reflect what was for Jung, the ‘ultimate’, ‘Formation, Transformation, Eternal Mind's eternal recreation’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invited by the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center in New York to lecture on my book Michael Balint: Le renouveau de l’Ecole de Budapest, Toulouse, Erès 2000, I first gave my personal and analytic motivations for writing this book. Then I stressed Balint's original contributions to analytical theory and practice: the object relation combined with the theory of instinct, the development of the infant, adolescent and even of old age, the basic fault, archaic defenses (such as ocnophilia and philobatism), as well as his idea about analytic treatment with its phases of regression and “new beginning”. His style and his discretion in treatment and mainly the responsibility he recommended to the analysts seem to me very important not to forget. I have shown him as Ferenczi's heir and how he continued his work. His clinical approach and his style are evoked to alert contemporary analysts—who sometimes just know his method to train general practitioners through the Balint group—that they have been influenced unbeknown to them.The American Journal of Psychoanalysis (2007) 67, 317–333. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ajp.3350036 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author addresses issues that emerge when we compare psychoanalytic experiences with adults and with infants. Two analyses—one with a 35 year-old woman and one with a 2 week-old boy and his mother—illustrate that infant psychoanalytic experiences help us understand and handle adult transference. However, we cannot extrapolate infant experiences to adult work. Truly, witnessing the baby's communication widens our sensitivity to non-verbal layers of the adult's communication. Infant work also offers a direct encounter with the container and the contained personified by a mother with her baby. But we need to conceptualize carefully the links between clinical experiences with babies and adults. When we call an adult transference pattern 'infantile', we imply that primeval experience has been transformed into present behaviour. However, if we view the analytical situation as one in which infantile invariants have transformed into adult symptoms, we face the impossible task of indicating the roots of the present symptoms. The author rather suggests that what is transformed is not an invariant infantile essence but signs denoting the patient's inner reality. He proposes we define transformation as a semiotic process instead of building it on an essentialist grounding. If we view the analytic situation as a map of signs that we translate during our psychoanalytic work, we can proceed into defining containment as a semiotic process. This idea will be linked with a conceptualization of the mother-infant relation in semiotic terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One hundred and one published articles that used visual habituation or violation-of-expectation techniques with infants of 12 months or younger were surveyed. Information was compiled on the number of infants who failed to complete experimental procedures due to “fussiness” or other factors. Also noted for each experiment was whether or not infants as a group demonstrated differential responding to the test display. On average 13.7% (range 0–62%) of infants failed to complete these visual procedures as a result of fussiness. There was no correlation between experimental outcome and infant attrition due to fussiness or to any other factor. We thus found no evidence to suggest that differential exclusion rates systematically influence experimental outcomes. However, we urge researchers to provide operational definitions of “fussiness.” [Copyright &y& Elsevier]