ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the process of regression to dependence in detail, addressing the possibility of repair within the therapeutic relationship. Integrative psychotherapists focus on the therapeutic relationship, but to work with regression to dependence requires a more in-depth knowledge of infant development, and of the connection of the original dyadic relationship between caretaker and infant and the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client. The application of theories from object relations within a relational therapy enables understanding of infant developmental processes and provides a template for the identification of infantile wounding and a plan for repair. Object relations theory identifies the self as developing in relation to its early environment, the caretaker, and others. Mitchell explains how theoretical traditions from object relations, self psychology, and other interpersonal theories complement each other and can be seen as being within a multi-faceted relational matrix. Infantilism concerns the central role played by concepts of early infantile development to psychoanalytic theory.
