ABSTRACT
The work of Daniel Stern represented a signi®cant shift in approaches to developmental theory (Stern, 1985a, 2003). He became particularly interested in the contradiction surrounding the theoretical focus in the early years of life and the ways in which these ideas seemed to occupy a speculative and obscure role in dealing with the real person in therapy. He also took issue with the stage models of early development (e.g. Freud, Mahler) which seemed to him to be arti®cially constructed and offering a somewhat linear view of development. Stern's particular interest was in developing a dialogue between the infant as revealed by the experimental approach, and as clinically constructed. A key emphasis therefore was on infant observation studies and their contribution to clinical thinking. This distinction between `the observed infant' and `the clinical infant' is crucial to Stern's work. The ®rst is concerned with direct observations in natural and experimental settings; the second has to do with reconstructions based on memories, transference re-enactments and interpretations, and different felt-life-histories. While Bowlby's main focus was on the dyad of the mother and child, Stern's focus is much more on the child itself, particularly in teasing out and articulating the subjective experience of the infant. He describes his book on the subject as `a working hypothesis about infants' subjective experience of their own social life' (1985b: 4).
