Infancy and Early Childhood

Winter 2005

P. Nachman, Ph.D A. Burton, M.D.

* = Available on PEP

The readings in psychoanalytic developmental psychology come from four sources. A distinction is made between these sources in order to clarify aspects of the recent debates in psychoanalysis that have rested upon making comparisons between research and clinical viewpoints. These sources are: 1) theoretical and conceptual papers relevant to core developmental theories that are written by psychoanalysts (e.g. Edgecumbe, Milrod ; 2) papers that are written by psychoanalytic clinicians who elaborated on psychoanalytic theory by using methods of direct observation and description (e.g., Mahler, Spitz); 3) papers written by psychoanalysts but who worked within the research methodology and the literature of academic developmental psychology ( Emde, Fonagy, Sander, Stern); and 4) papers written by academic developmental researchers who had no training ( and in some cases no interest) in psychoanalysis but who contributed to our knowledge base of information about early development and the parent-child relationship (e.g., Ainsworth, Main, Travarthan, Tronick).

Given the time limitations of this course, we will sample only few representative papers from a vast and varied child development literature. The papers chosen have at their core the infant’s early relationship with its parents, and the interactive exchanges between the two (or three). The question of the nature of the infant’s earliest experience is central to our inquiry and study of these readings. The clinical application of these papers and dialogue between the clinical and research points of view of early development will be discussed.

The readings marked by # are required readings. The other selections are supplementary readings for your interest. They are highly recommended.

SESSION I

# Lieberman, A., & Slade, A. The first year of life, pp. 3-9; the second year of life, pp. 56-63.

Slade, A. & Lieberman, A. Affective development during the third year of life,
pp. 89-99.

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPTUALIZATION OF EARLY OBJECT RELATIONSHIPS

SESSION II

# * Edgecumbe, R. & Burgner, M. Some problems in the conceptualization of early object relationships. Part I: the concepts of need satisfaction and need-
satisfying relations. PSC, 27: 283-314, 1972.

# * Burgner, M. & Edgecumbe, R. Some problems in the conceptualization of early object relationship. Part II: The concept of object constancy. PSC 27: 315-333.

Spitz film

Provence, Sally. (1980) Direct Observation and Psychoanalytic
Developmental Psychology: The Child from One to Three, in The Course of Life Vol I:Infancy and Early Childhood. pp. 381-393. (skim)

Tyson, P. & Tyson, R. (1990) The theory of the developmental process.
Psychoanalytic Theories of Development: An Integration. New Haven,
Yale Univ. Press. Ch. 2, pp. 21-37, skim Ch. 3, pp. 41- 50.

* Abrams, S. (1990) The psychoanalytic process: The developmental and
Integrative. Psychoanal. Quarterly, vol. LIX:4, pp. 650-677.

Emde, R.N (1980) Toward a psychoanalytic theory of affect II: Emerging
models of emotional development in infancy. In S. Greenspan & S. Pollack
(Eds.), The Course of Life; Vol. I: Infancy and Early Childhood, N.I. M H.,
pp. 85-112.

Pine, F. (1985) Developmental Theory and Clinical Process: An Orientation
and a Framework. Ch. I. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.

Silverman, M. (1989) “The First Year After Birth, in The Course of
Life: vol. I: Infancy and Early Childhood, Eds. Greenspan and Pollack,
IUP, pp. 339-353.

BIOLOGICAL AND NEUROLOGICAL VIEW OF EARLY DEVELOPMENT

SESSION III

# Nelson, C. Neurobiology of Fetal and infant development: Implications for infant mental health. In: The Handbook of Infant Mental Health, (Ed.) C. Zeanah. pp. 37-59.

Hofer, M. Hidden regulators: Implications for a new understanding of attachment, separation, and loss. pp. 203-230.

SESSION IV

Margaret Mahler (differentiation and separation from the libidinal object)

Mahler is representative of the group of analysts whose aim was to elaborate or refine psychoanalytic theory by utilizing a method of naturalistic observation. Her work constitutes an attempt to explore the establishment of self and object representations and the problem of differentiation of these representations. The process she described culminates in established object and self representations and the attainment of object constancy. For Mahler, object constancy is the key concept reflecting the child’s readiness for taking pleasure in independent functioning; when successful it permits the development of differentiated oedipal, adolescent, and adult object relations. We will study her work and clinical theory and note how it contributed new conceptual understandings to our notions of ego, self, and object relations.

# Bergman, A. (1999). Margaret Mahler’s theory of separation-individuation. In Noshpitz, J. (Ed.). Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Vol. I, pp.
276-289. New York: Wiley.

# * Pine, F. (1994) The era of separation-individuation. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, v. 14, pp. 4-24.

Mahler Film presentation.

* Mahler, M. (1981) Aggression in the service of separation-individuation.
Psychoanal. Quart. pp. 625-638.

* Mahler, M. (1972) The first three subphases of the separation-individuation
process. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 53, pp. 333-338.

Mahler, M ., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975) The Psychological Birth of the
Human Infant. Ch. 16, pp. 225-230.

* Pine, F. (1992) Some refinements of the separation-individuation concept in light of recent research on infants. PSC, vol. 47, pp.103-116.

* Lyons-Ruth, K. (1991) Rapprochement and approachment: Mahler’s theory reconsidered from the vantage point of recent research of early attachment. Psychoanal. Psychol. 8, pp. 1-23 (a critique).

Gergely, G. (2000) Reapproaching Mahler: New Perspectives on normal autism symbiosis, splitting and libidinal object constancy from cognitive
developmental.

SESSION V

# Mahler, M., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975) The Psychological Birth of the
Human Infant. Chapters 1,3,4,& 5.

# McDevitt, J. (1980) The role of internalization in the development of object
relations. In: R. Lax & A. Burland (Eds), Rapprochement: The Critical
Subhase of Separation-Individuation, pp.135-150.

* Pine, F. Pathology of the separation-individuation process as manifested in
later clinical work, IJP (1979) v. 60, pp. 225-242 (skim).

* Mayes, L. & Cohen, D. (1994) Experiencing self and others. Contributions
from studies of autism to psychoanalytic theory of social development. J.
Amer. Psychoanal. Assoc., 42/1, pp. 191-218.

MICROANALYTICANALYTIC STUDIES OF INFANT-PARENT INTERACTION

SESSION VI

# Tronick, E. (1989) Emotions and emotional communication in
infants. American Psychologist, 44/2, 112-119.

# Tronick, E. & Weinberg, M (1997). Depressed mothers and their infants. In L. Murray and P. Cooper, (Eds.), Postpartum Depression and Child
Development. New Guilford Press, pp. 54-81.

Video tape

* Beebe, B & Lachmann, F., & Jaffe, J (1997) Mother-infant interactive
structures and presymbolic self-object representation. Psychoanalytic
Dialogues, 7/2, 133-147.

Tronick, E. Depressed mothers and infants: Failure to form dyadic states of consciousness. In: Postpartum Depression and Child Development, (Ed.s) Murray and Cooper.

Tronick, E. & Gianino, A. (1986) The transmission of maternal disturbance to
the infant. New Directions for Child Development, 34, pp. 5-11.

Cicchetti, D. (1995). Developmental Psychopathology. Wiley, New York.
* Spitz, R. (1945) Hospitalism. PSC, vol. 1, New York: IUP

* Spitz, R. (1946) Anaclitic Depression . PSC, Vol. 2, New York: IUP, pp. 313-343.

MEMORY

SESSION VII

# Nelson, K. Representation of real life experience. In Narratives from the
Crib, (ed.) K. Nelson, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Ma. pp.27-72.

# Gaensbauer, T. (2002) Representations of trauma in infancy: Clinical and
theroetical implications for the understanding of early memory. J. of Infant
Mental Health, 23, 3, pp. 259-273.

SUPEREGO PRECURSORS

SESSION VIII

# * Buchsbaum, H. & Emde, R. (1990) Play narratives in 36-month old children: Early moral development and family relationships. PSC, vol. 45, Yale Univ. Press. New Haven, CT. pp. 129-155.

# * Milrod, D. (1990) The ego ideal. PSC, vol. 45, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, Ct. pp. 43-60.

INTERSUBJECTIVITY AND THEORY OF MIND

SESSION IX

Relational psychoanalytic theory is built on the premise that the intrapsychic and the intersubjective are complementary modes of experience and that both are necessary to explain the reciprocal influence of interpersonal events on psychic development. For an understanding of intersubjectivity it is important to see how it builds on concepts derived from infant research such as, mutual regulation (Beebe and Lachmann, 1998), mentalization (Fonagy and Target, 1995, 1996, 1998), theory of mind (Mayes and Cohen), and intersubjectivity (Trevarthan).

# * Mayes, L. & Cohen, D. (1996) Children’s developing theory of mind. JAPA, pp.117-142.

# Harris, P. Beliefs, desires, and Emotions. In Children and Emotion, (ed.
Paul L. Harris), Blackwell Press. Pp. 51-80.

* Fonagy, P. (1991). Thinking about thinking: Clinical and theoretical
considerations in the treatment of borderline patients, Internat. J. of
Psychoanal., 72, pp. 639-656.

* Fonagy, P. & Target, M. (1996) Playing with reality. Internat. J. of
Psychoanal., 77, pp.217-234.

* Fonagy, P. & Target (2000) Playing with reality. III: The persistence of duel
psychic reality in borderine patients. Int. J. of Psychoanal. 81, pp. 853-873.

Trevarthan, C. (1980) The foundations of intersubjectivity: Development of
interpersonal and cooperative understanding in infants. In The Social
Foundations of Language and Thought: Essays in Honor of Jerome Bruner,
(Ed.) D. R. Olson, New York: Norton, pp.316-342.

Trevarthan, C. (1979) Communication and cooperation in early infancy: A
description of primary intersubjectivity. In Before Speech: The Beginning of
Human Communication, (ED) M. Bullowa; London: Cambridge Univ. Press,
pp. 321-347.

Trevarthan, C. (1980) The foundations of intersubjectivity: Development of
interpersonal and cooperative understanding in infants. In The Social
Foundations of Language and Thought: Essays in Honor of Jerome Bruner,
(Ed.) D. R. Olson, New York: Norton, pp.316-342.

ATTACHMENT THEORY

SESSION X

Bowlby and attachment theory
Attachment theory had its origins with John Bowlby. His contribution is important because he too was set on finding more stringent empirical methods to demonstrate major psychoanalytic principles; mainly those that had to do with separation, loss, and a “child’s tie to his or her mother (attachment). Attachment theory evolved from Bowlby’s biological and ethological orientation, and attracted academic developmental psychologists who set about establishing a methodology in keeping with academic research.

Led by Mary Ainsworth (Bowlby’s research assistant) and other researchers, developmental psychology began to flourish in university based departments of psychology, and for a 20 year period was almost completely divorced from psychoanalysis and its clinical foundation. Recently, interest in psychoanalysis has been renewed as developmentalists have started to ask questions about the “internal” world, motivation, intergenerational considerations, and the issue of mental representation. Based on the study of ethology, attachment theory and psychoanalysis endorse totally different methodological approaches; however, they share a common bond in having origins in psychoanalysis and in being engaged in the study of similar themes and principles. We shall compare these viewpoints and ask what, if anything, has attachment theory contributed to our understanding of young children and the nature of their relationships with their parents* What have we learned from “the strange situation” attachment paradigm about the behavioral manifestations of anxiety and insecurity*

# Karen, R. (1980) Becoming Attached. Atlantic Monthly, February, pp.35-70.

# * Main, M. (2000) The organized categories of infant, child, & adult
attachment. J.of the Amer. Psychoanal. Assoc. 48/4, pp. 1056-1096. Skim,
(see other relevant articles in this volume).

Video tape of Bowlby and Ainsworth
Video tape of attachment categories

* Bowlby, J. (1958) The nature of the child’s tie to his mother. Internat. J. of
Psychoanal., 39: pp. 350-373.

Fonagy, P. (1999) Psychoanalytic theory from the viewpoint of attachment
theory and research. In Cassidy & Shaver (eds), The Handbook of
Attachment, New York, Guilford, pp. 595-624.