ABSTRACT
A baby develops relatively quickly in the course of active interactions with the mother and father, so a baby cannot be understood outside of these interactions. Psychotherapeutic work with parents and infants requires an integrated and creative use of ideas from child development research, neuropsychological research, infant observations, psychoanalytic literature, theories of infant evolution, psychology, and the arts. What a therapist needs is not the knowledge of a theoretical baby, but the capacity to understand the developing individual baby and his or her changing needs and feelings. This allows the therapist to help parents understand both their baby’s cues and needs as well as their own reactions and feelings to their baby’s behaviour. Detecting the early signs of parent-infant difficulties means great savings in personal as well as social costs, because vulnerable infants or children will not need to be constantly referred to medical, social, and educational resources.
