ABSTRACT
Chapter 9, “From panic to pleasure. Therapy with Debbie and Mae”, renders a mother–infant therapy in toto. The purpose is to provide a detailed account of the verbal interchange between the therapist and an anxious mother, as well as how he addresses the baby girl about his assumptions of what she is feeling for the moment. The story also contains an analysis of his countertransference, as when the family goes to the emergency room with the baby after a therapy session, and the mother criticizes his handling of the baby’s distress. Her transition, from being an ambivalent mother convinced that something is the matter with her baby and herself as a mother, to becoming a responsible, loving, and proud mother, is submitted in a way that is vivid and easy to follow.
