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Although the relevance of infant observation to psychoanalysis has been argued about extensively, there seems to be less controversy about the relevance of psychoanalysis to the study, or treatment, of infants. Selma Fraiberg, Daniel Stern, Bertrand Cramer, Beatrice Beebe and others have described the application of psychoanalytic theory to parent-infant psychotherapy and have ushered in a renewed interest in psychoanalytically informed treatments of infants and parents. With the increased number of infant clinical services and training programmes, the relevance of psychoanalysis to infant treatment warrants further attention. In The Multiple Facets of Ther-apeutic Transactions, Roth & Kulb present a theory of psychological functioning and therapeutic intervention that assumes both the relevance of psychoanalysis to the treatment of infants and the relevance of infant observation to psychoanalysis. Having experienced the compelling nature of infant clinical work, their personal convictions permeate the book. Their assumptions of relevance, without discussion, supporting empirical findings or clinical data weaken their argument.
Roth & Kulb attempt to formulate a ‘universal’ theory of psychological functioning (p. vii). Their theory is based on observations of parent-infant interaction made during their sixteen years of clinical and training experience at the University of Chicago Parent Infant Development Service. Concerned that no single existing theory is acceptable to all clinicians or applicable to all patients, they attempt to bring together aspects of several theoretical perspectives by conceptualising them as four facets of psychological functioning: interpersonal, developmental, characterological and intrapsychic. They further subdivide these facets into domains, aims, conservative tendencies, assumptions and principles. The overarching principal of their model is transactionalism. They redefine familiar psychoanalytic concepts, ‘for the sake of clarifying th