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The Early Years of Life, originally published in German in 2007, was translated and published in English in 2011. Its author, Gertraud Diem-Wille, is a Viennese psychoanalyst who studied infant observation and psychoanalysis with Kleinian/Bionian psychoanalysts and child psychotherapists in London. Her book is a rich and convincing demonstration of what this approach has to contribute both to the training of adult and child psychoanalysts and to our understanding of early development. In illustrating infant/mother/father connections in exquisite detail, it adds richness to our ways of conceptualizing what goes right when family life contributes to healthy development, and what can go wrong when something in the child and/or the family pushes development off the rails. And thus, in the parallel universe we construct as one aspect of our analytic treatment, it can help us formulate our methods and goals as we try to facilitate development in our patients of whatever age.
Diem-Wille constructs her story about the early years of life from three sources. First, and probably of most interest to an American audience because least familiar, is her use of detailed infant observation material from her own experience, from that of colleagues, and from documentary films made by child psychotherapists trained at the Tavistock Clinic in London. She also uses transcripts of videotapes made by other infant researchers, primarily those of Daniel Stern and his group. Second, she illustrates her conceptualizations with detailed reports of clinical interventions with young families and psychoanalytic sessions with young children. Third, she reviews empirical studies in child development, as well as findings of contemporary neuroscience.