ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book devotes to how each new sense of self comes about, what maturing capacities and abilities make it possible, what new perspective it adds to the infant's social world view, and how this new perspective enhances the infant's capacity for relatedness. It looks at some clinical implications of this working theory, from differing viewpoints. The book also looks at the "observed infant" with a clinical eye. It reverses that perspective and looks at the reconstructed infant of clinical practice with the eye of an observer of infants. The book addresses the issues, in particular the advantages and limitations of combining data from experimental and clinical sources; the rationale for placing the sense of self at the center of a developmental account of social experience; and the conceptualization of the developmental progression of senses of the self.
