ABSTRACT
The inner world of babies and their lived experience intertwine in their developing minds. Parents help their babies to differentiate a more realistic picture of the outside world and the contents of their mind. The baby is then able to think about what is in her mind. A baby gradually develops a sense of time that approaches what an adult's sense of time is like. Parents try to help their babies feel that their internal world is safe and to protect their emerging thinking, imagination, and sense of self. As parents name feelings, babies can begin to think about being in an emotional relationship with another person. A parent naming feelings helps a baby to develop the capacity of the mind to have insight into the feelings of the self and others. Parents have seen how much the feelings and fantasies that babies have intersect with their attempts to understand the world and how they have to disentangle them.
