The Story of Infant Development Observational Work With Martha Harris

includes index and biblioraphy

CHAPTER ONE: The pattern of normal development: forming a relationship with the breast 1 A stunning experience; a state of normal non-integration and evacuation of sensations; the pull of the nipple; maternal depression and the difficulty of introjecting the object; digesting emotions; problems of identification in the mother; the breast that comes and goes away; the bottle, and a distance from the mother. CHAPTER TWO: The pattern of normal development: the end of breastfeeding 35 The end of breastfeeding; feelings of aggression and seduction; representations of the breast; the lost breast and the nipple lifeline; mother returns to work-the new sweetheart; the only baby; the relationship with the father; how the new baby is made; the little chair-the new place in the family. CHAPTER THREE: The story of the birth of the next sibling 89 Feminine and masculine qualities; the value of fairy tales; the epistemophilic instinct; one day it will be his turn; a point of "catastrophic change"; birth of the next sibling; the "imbecile" infantile self that damages its objects; the second day at nursery school (with Donald Meltzer); the third birthday. CHAPTER FOUR: A three-year-old uses the gang as container 155 Summary of the first two observation sessions; the gang and circularity of time; the parents` unfulfilled childhood (with Donald Meltzer). CHAPTER FIVE: Play observation in a hospital setting: some diagnostic implications Eleanora: redefining a diagnosis of child psychosis as neurotic anxiety; Daniela: redefining a diagnosis of epilepsy as psychosomatic illness; Vittoria: redefining a diagnosis of brain pathology in terms of mental deficiency. Two infant observations: Matteo (early internalization of the object) and Giuseppino (the child`s look and the mother`s emotional state).