ABSTRACT
This is true at any age, but particularly significant when we are considering an infant or young child. It is quite an amusing and illuminating experience to watch a parent approach a baby, watch it lovingly, and, before too long, voice his appraisal of that baby. If only visitors, this has limited importance, but when we focus on the infant’s parents and other adults that have extensive contact with the child, we have to consider the influence that the images they hold of the baby have on that child’s developing notions of his nature and his abilities, his self. A patient in his mid-thirties recounted how, throughout his early childhood, he was considered clumsy, unreliable, and accident-prone. Quite often, professionals will disagree on their assessments of the degree of improvement that a particular treatment can offer a child.
