ABSTRACT
The theme of this book is the central importance of keeping the baby in mind when working with parents and infants. In this chapter I seek to emphasise that in approaching this task, one of the things that we specifi cally need to consider is the nature of the baby that both parents have in their minds, that is to say, how they both see this particular infant, coloured as this will be by their own earliest experiences. In addition to this, and just as important, is the way in which the two more or less shared views of the mother and father interact with each other to produce the emotional climate in which the infant’s personality will develop. It will be suggested that the implications of this are that both parents should be involved in any therapeutic interventions with infants if an optimal outcome is to be achieved.
