Psychodynamic and Neuroscientific Perspectives on Motherhood

Psychoanalytic perspectives on parenting and child development have been well articulated in the literature. With advances in neuroimaging methods, recent interest has focused on the neural circuits that may support caregiving in human subjects. In this issue, we consider the value of psychodynamic and neuroscientific perspectives as they pertain to the complex but critical transition to motherhood, and the value of this interdisciplinary approach to probing parental reflective functioning and pathways to the intergenerational transmission of trauma.