This is the second anthology1 on parenthood spawned by Theresa Benedek's seminal paper, 'Parenthood as a developmental phase'.2 In this volume's reprise, Future perspectives, the editors justify its publication, by asserting that self psychology with its view of a superordinate structure, the self, provides a new and useful framework for describing and conceptualizing the processes and tasks of parenthood in normality and pathology. The utility of this book depends upon agreement with this point of view.

The book grew out of a Conference on Parenthood as an Adult Experience held in Chicago, March 1980 which undoubtedly accounts for the overlap of the twenty-five chapters organized in three sections: 'Developmental Perspective', 'Psychosocial Perspective', and 'Clinical and Theoretical Psychoanalytic Perspectives'. The