You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
DR. ANNI BERGMAN WAS INVITED TO BE THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT the December 1, 2007, conference Where the Wild Things Are: Exciting and Scary Things for Children and Therapists. Her talk, entitled “Taming the Wild Things in a Treatment from Early Childhood to Adult Motherhood,” highlighted the value of the relationship and the importance of giving meaning to the inner workings of an autistic child's mind. Video clips of Dr. Bergman's work with her patient Rosie allowed the audience to see the creative work of this extraordinary woman.
Dr. Bergman began her work in observational research in 1959 when she joined the research team of Margaret Mahler studying the process of separation-individuation at the Masters Children's Center in New York City. Mahler's work has been documented in The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant, of which Dr. Bergman is a co-author. Besides observing normal children there, Bergman treated psychotic children using the tripartite treatment method, and she has continued to do follow-up studies with her original research subjects.
Dr. Bergman received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the City University of New York, where she founded and directed a therapeutic day treatment center for inner city children. Her collected papers entitled
Ours, Yours, Mine describe Bergman's research and follow-up studies, and therapeutic work with psychotic children.
Currently, Dr. Bergman is an Associate Professor in the Postdoctoral Program at New York University, a training and supervising analyst at the New York Freudian Society, and is a fellow at IPTAR. She is also a special member of the Columbia and White Institutes. She is a Visiting Faculty member in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Padova, and with Rita Reiswig and Dr. Sally Moskowitz, she is co-founder and co-director of the Anni Bergman Parent and Infant Training Program, affiliated with the Freudian Society and IPTAR.
I have had the privilege of knowing Dr. Bergman as