ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part shows the infant not as helpless, chaotic, or unpredictable, but equipped with highly predictable responses to both positive and negative stimuli from the outside world. The dialogue of cooing and smiling which charms an observer of three-or four-month-old infants with their parents is both a new beginning and an achievement with a history all its own. At birth, the elaborate sensory and motor program of the newborn and the powerful fantasies of the parents meet and seek a new balance. The newborn is equipped with all of the complex sensory and motor behaviors. Nine months of intrauterine conditioning readies babies for the particular environment into which they are born. The maternal cues they have received in utero have shaped their responses and prepared them to be responsive to their mother's rhythms and signals after delivery.
