ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes available psychodynamic approaches to problems in infant relationships. It argues that more case studies of therapeutic interventions in infancy are needed to increase the understanding of early disturbances and of their treatment. Infantile disturbances are considered to be a function of current relationships. Infants are liable to many symptoms of emotional disturbance. However, it is widely agreed that there is no such thing as individual psychopathology in infancy. Clinical experience shows that infants under the age of about two to two-and-a-half years are usually quickly responsive to changes in their parents’ feelings and behaviour towards them. The work of Selma Fraiberg in America marks the start of systematic thinking about psychotherapeutic approaches to infancy. Therapeutic intervention in infancy can make a significant contribution to understanding the genesis of psychopathology. It helps to disclose the factors sustaining deviant development by changing them.
