The Effect on a Child of a Mother Who Though Physically Present Was Emotionally Unavailable*

This paper seeks to illustrate some of the consequences for a young child of a prolonged depression in his mother. It shows what may happen when a mother though physically present is emotionally absent, as David's mother was throughout much of the first year of his life, and highlights the dangers that beset such a child.

Some attempt is made to suggest the nature of the precipitating factor in Mrs. B.'s depression and to make links between her child's symptomatology as reported and observed, and her own depression. An account is also given of the therapeutic intervention, by a child psychotherapist and a psychiatric social worker, whereby the unsatisfactory cycle of relations which had been set in motion was ameliorated.

We are dependent for information about what took place in David's first two years upon reports from the health visitor and the Maternity and Child Welfare Clinic, from the parent's own account of it and from what could be gleaned from the treatment situation.

It is known that a mother who is depressed is in a withdrawn state and therefore less able than is usually the case to be sensitive and to respond appropriately to her infant's needs and that an infant faced with this situation will find his own particular way of reacting to it according to his make-up.

Fortunately, most mothers are not severely depressed for as long as David's mother was. However, Joyce Robertson (1965) from direct observation has reported the effect on two infants of the withdrawal of their mothers’ normally sensitive handling of them over a period lasting only two weeks, and the lasting effect of the damage to their relationships and development which the experience had and the different outcomes for the mothers and babies concerned.

Work with the Child Psychotherapist: Miss Helen Carr Referral

David was referred to the Clinic when two years and three months old by his general practitioner, who sent reports from the Maternity and Child Welfare Clinic and the health vi