ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author sets out to explore the interactions that take place between infants and their caregivers and the effect of these on the developing pattern of relationship established between them. She deals with a paper by Gyorgy Gergely. In this paper Gergely, who is himself a developmental psychologist, provides a bridge from the world of psychoanalysis to the world of observation and experiment. The author looks at evidence from the field of infant research which supports the view of R. Fairbairn and other object relations theorists that the infant is person seeking from the start of life and is not a bundle of instincts. The work of the object relationists is supported by the psycho biologists and infant researchers, who explore amongst other things the regulation and communication of affective states, and the way that the process is embedded in infant/caregiver interactions.
