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Bjorn Salomonsson’s book follows from his earlier research and publications on psychoanalytically inspired therapies with parents and infants, on child analysis and on case presentation methods. It is a description of his work at the Child Health Centre (CHC) using a psychoanalytically informed model that combines supervision, therapeutic consultations and brief interventions. He differentiates the CHC work from mainstream mental health centres in Sweden and prefaces the presentation of his method as informed by his own clinical experience, which does not include for instance LGBTQ families and families with adopted children. He understands that the work model he uses is not restricted to Scandinavian countries, that it can be applied broadly.
The importance of the analyst’s capacity for containment, open-mindedness and holding the internal frame, “reading between the lines”, is at the core of the work. His consultation model, its usefulness described in relation to interventions offered in the early stages of pregnancy and delivery, is based on Meltzer’s ideas of the need for the analyst to “preside over the setting”, the experienced therapist’s robust professional identity guiding the work and choice of technique. A fully fledged transference with the analyst is neither possible nor desirable in such consultations, although it is nevertheless present. The transference can facilitate communication and must be kept in mind by the analyst in their attempts to understand the mother’s personality. The consultation work, also described as brief therapy, includes assessing and communicating with the baby, and Salomonsson’s perspective on it is presented in great detail. It is clear the importance of clinical experience and a sound analytic stance to deliver the work he describes.
The institutional frame in the CHC, the interface with its users and the supervision work with nurses are closely described and examined. He comments for instance on the importance of both staff a