ABSTRACT
Working in prisons with mothers and babies provides the additional opportunity for thinking about the impact of early experience in the development not only of the baby before all, but also of the mother. Psychotherapy with mothers and babies demands attunement to the mother–baby dyad, while also keeping in mind the very concrete external reality of prison life. Many children go into care when their mother is sent to prison. The other mothers in the group chatted and gradually seemed to become more interested in their babies, although a lot of time could be taken up with discussions about their clothes. The original idea behind the author interest in working in a prison with mothers came from the author curiosity about the interplay between internal and external worlds. The mothers would talk about their children at home, any feelings of sadness, or simply engage in ordinary chitchat.
