ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the role of infant–parent psychotherapy in a paediatric practice by describing the experiences of a mother who thought her infant son was developing autism. She is concerned with the role of understanding maternal projections in the genesis of psychopathology in infancy and the task of the clinician to unearth and change distorted projections which may interfere with the parent–infant relationship and, as a result, impair the infant’s psychosocial development. Distorted identifications can undermine the relationship and parents may react exclusively to the intentions which they lend to the infant, but which in reality emerge from their own psyche. Selma Fraiberg designed an infant–parent psychotherapy intervention model to address the problems that arise from such distorted relationships The chapter presents the case of Nadia and karl. The story of Nadia and Karl shows the importance of unearthing the plot behind the scene.
