Psychotherapeutic work with parents and infants - psychoanalytic and attachment perspectives

Abstract

Psychodynamic psychotherapy with parents and infants addresses the relationship between them where there has been a disruption or distortion in the process of bonding. Often this is characterized by a repudiation of the state of infancy by the parent, and a negation of infantile needs in the baby and in herself. The infant joins the mother in co-constructing defensive measures against their infantile attachment needs, thereby actualizing intergenerational repetitions. The therapist is a clinical observer of the relationship between parent and infant and an emotional participant in it. From the behavioural and affective interactions, she deduces their emerging mental models and procedures of being with each other. Her role is to represent symbolically, for both parent and infant, their experience of being with the other. Through this the affective dialogue is elaborated, to include feeling and thought constellations that were previously enacted procedurally. The paper illustrates these ideas about the therapeutic process through transcripts of case material.