Clinical Studies in Infant Mental Health. The First Year of Life: Edited by Selma Fraiberg, in collaboration with Louis Fraiberg. New York: Basic Books, 1980, 279 pp., $19.50.

Selma Fraiberg, who died in 1981, was a pioneer in the new field of infant psychiatry. A noted child analyst, she devoted herself to the diagnosis and treatment of high-risk infants and their families and became a strong proponent of early intervention. Her studies on blind children and their families enabled her to propose techniques for intervention with high-risk infants which included treatment in the home of very disturbed families who ordinarily would be reluctant to accept any type of psychotherapy.

This book depicts the research principles which were the basis for Fraiberg's study. In a warm narrative style, Fraiberg describes the therapeutic measures that were necessary to treat not only the infant at risk, but also the disturbed, frightened parents whose own early experiences of abuse gave them little reason to trust anyone. Fraiberg's earlier work gave her the expectation that nearly all parents of endangered children can find it in themselves to "bring the best" to their children if they are helped by "professional allies."

The book Fraiberg edited describes a clinical program serving approximately 140 families per year in a poor district in Whashtenaw