This implicit, embodied knowledge forms the basis of infant object relationships, which later become accessible in the transference of patients undergoing psychoanalysis (Lecours, 2007; Talvitie & Ihanus, 2002). Transference is understood to be the “process of actualisation of unconscious wishes… infantile prototypes re-emerge and are experienced with a strong sensation of immediacy…” (Laplanche & Pontalis, 1973, p. 455). While transference phenomena are important sources of evidence about infant states, this source must now be balanced against and combined with current empirical literature on infant development in a wide diversity of areas, including infant observation, ethology, behavioural genetics, attachment theory, cognitive development, and developmental neuroscience to formulate an empirically supported and nuanced view of newborn and infant capacities.
Dianna KennyProfessor of Psychology, The University of Sydney.
Author of Bringing Up Baby: The Psychoanalytic Infant Comes of Age (Karnac Books, 2013).
References
Alperin, R. M. (2001). Barriers to intimacy: an object relations perspective. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 18 (1): 137–156.
Beebe, B., Rustin, J., Sorter, D., & Knoblauch, S. (2003). An expanded view of intersubjectivity in infancy and its application to psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 13 (6), 805-841.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and Loss: Separation, Anxiety and Anger (Vol. 2). London: Hogarth.
Caron, A. J. (2009). Comprehension of the representational mind in infancy. Developmental Review, 29: 69–95.
Carver, L. J., & Vaccaro, B. G. (2007). 12-month-old infants allocate increased neural resources to stimuli associated with negative adult emotion. Developmental Psychology, 43 (1): 54–69.
Gallagher, S. (2001). The practice of mind: Theory, simulation or primary interaction. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8: 83–103.
Laplanche, J., Pontalis, J.B. (1973). The Language of Psycho-Analysis: Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. The International Psycho-Analytical Library, 94:1-497. London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
Lecours, S. (2007). Supportive interventions and nonsymbolic mental functioning. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 88 (4): 895–915.
Mahler, M. S. (1963). Thoughts about development and individuation. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 18: 307–324.
Mahler, M. S. (1967). On human symbiosis and the vicissitudes of individuation. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 15: 740–763.
Mahler, M. S. (1972). On the first three phases of the separation–individuation process. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 53: 333–338.
Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant. New York: Basic Books.
Mohacsy, I. (1976). Fusion and anxiety: children’s drawings and Renaissance art. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, 4 (4): 501–514.
Meltzoff, A. N. (2007a). ‘Like me’: a foundation for social cognition. Developmental Science, 10 (1): 126–134.
Meltzoff, A. N. (2007b). The ‘like me’ framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent. Acta Psychologica, 124 (1): 26–43.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Brooks, R. (2008). Self-experience as a mechanism for learning about others: a training study in social cognition. Developmental Psychology, 44(5): 1257–1265.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1994). Imitation, memory, and the representation of persons. Infant Behavior & Development, 17: 83–99.
Nagera, H. (1964). Autoerotism, autoerotic activities, and ego development. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 19: 240–255.
Ogden, T. H. (1989a). On the concept of an autistic-contiguous position. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 70: 127–140.
Ogden, T. H. (1989b). The Primitive Edge of Experience. London: Jason Aronson.
Ogden, T. H. (2004). On holding and containing, being and dreaming. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 85 (6): 1349–1364.
Papousek, H., Papousek, M., & Koester, L. S. (1986). Sharing emotionality and sharing knowledge: A microanalytic approach to parent-infant communication. In C. Izard & P. Read (Eds.), Measuring Emotions in Infants and Children (Vol. 2, pp. 93-123). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Piaget, J., & Cook, M. (1954a). The development of object concept. In: The Construction of Reality in the Child (pp. 3–96). New York: Basic Books.
Repacholi, B. M., Meltzoff, A. N., & Olsen, B. (2008). Infants’ understanding of the link between visual perception and emotion: “If she can’t see me doing it, she won’t get angry”. Developmental Psychology, 44 (2): 561–574.
Sander, L. W. (1988). The event-structure of regulation in the neonate-caregiver system as a biological background for early organization of psychic structure. Progress in Self Psychology, 3: 64–77.
Stern, D. N. (1985). The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A View from Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology. New York: Basic Books.
Talberg, G., Cuoto, J. A., De Lourdes, M., & O’Donnell, S. (1988). Early affect development: empirical research. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 69: 239–259.
Talvitie, V., & Ihanus, J. (2002). The repressed and implicit knowledge. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 83 (6): 1311–1323.
Tronick, E. Z. (2002). A model of infant mood states and Sandarian affective waves. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 12 (1), 73-99.
Tronick, E. Z., & Beeghly, M. (2011). Infants’ meaning-making and the development of mental health problems. American Psychologist, 66 (2), 107.
Varga, S. (2011). Winnicott, symbolic play, and other minds. Philosophical Psychology, 24 (5): 625–637.
]]>
Leave a Reply