A Ghost in the Nursery: Progressive Development in an Infant with an Inadequately Attuned Mother

Over a period of 15 months I had the opportunity to observe how an infant is able to thrive in an inconsistent, fluctuating environment, with a mother whose capacity for attunement and maternal care was, at best, uneven. Rose's strong constitutional endowment and ability to make use of other objects enabled her to progress from absolute dependence on her mother towards increasing independence and individuation, successfully negotiating developmental milestones with little evidence of any regressive pull.

Mrs L's ambivalence and preoccupation with her older daughter, Nancy, often left her emotionally and physically unavailable to Rose's needs. A mother's capacity for attunement is measured by her ability to experience her infant's inner state. The infant then develops the capacity to reflect mother's affective state. Stern (1985) pointed out that the sharing of affective states is the most pertinent feature of intersubjective relatedness. Furthermore, whilst physical and physiological needs are being met, attunement may be altogether absent. Rose's healthy physical appearance, notwithstanding her emotional experiences, exemplifies this.

Mrs L often complained of feeling ‘exhausted and fed up’. Her energy was spent in organizing numerous social activities for Nancy, the older sibling. These activities provided distance and served as a buffer between mother and Nancy, who were frequently locked in an anal-sadistic battling relationship. Rose was often present and placed on the sideline to observe these exchanges.

Fraiberg (1975) has described how a mother-infant relationship may be imperilled by intrusion of visitors from the parental unremembered past. She referred to these uninvited guests as ‘the ghost in the nursery’. She further described the re-enactment of past scenes in the mother-child