ABSTRACT

Emotional life, the very stuff of psychoanalysis, is now gaining prominence as a focus for legitimate scientific interest. A central aim behind this book was the wish to bring together under one roof some of the current psychoanalytic, attachment, neuropsychological and psychobiological perspectives in the belief that they have much to offer the individual who, for professional or personal reasons, is interested in emotional development. Emotional development takes place at the confluence of diverse and multiple processes and it seems apposite to draw on a variety of perspectives. In the first section the development of emotional life is viewed through different lenses, each highlighting a particular aspect of how the mind develops and functions. In the second section, the focus is at the psychic level, the individual’s subjective experience as it reveals itself within the domain of a therapeutic relationship.