The Preoedipal Relationship of a Father, Mother, and Daughter

One of the most illuminating experiences in the course of psychoanalytic treatment is the opportunity to work with a patient’s early childhood experiences as they emerge to either the patient or the patient’s spouse under the impact of the birth of a baby. Under these circumstances, the patient’s early life events assume a new sense of intimacy and veracity. In regard to the new infant’s own developmental realities, however, they remain screened from the analyst in that they are viewed through the distorted prism created by patients’ perceptions of their own children.