ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses a hypothesis that problems in the earliest mother–infant interaction are related to the unconscious anxieties, conflicts, and powerful projections of the mother. Such problems can lead to potentially dangerous defensive responses in the infant, and third, they can result in serious developmental disturbances. The clinical problem which prompted the ideas was that of two very young babies referred to the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry because their parents were terrified by the belief that the babies could look but would not see. Looking and seeing are amongst the earliest of the skills that the human being utilises. “To see” implies the automatic sensory perception of an image whereas “to look” implies the active utilisation of the perceptual ability—the notion of volition is assumed. The chapter focuses on the development and meaning of gaze behaviour in infancy and the role that the parents’ projections and ambivalence play in the infant’s development, emotional, social, and neurobiological.
