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.
The authors studied three aspects of this problem: the maternal motivation, the mother-infant communication, and the evolution of the mother-infant relationship. Maternal motivation is founded upon a biological factor as well as upon those psychological elements that condition the unconscious attitude of the mother and represent her psychological preparation for motherhood. The communication between mother and infant is maintained by means of two sets of signals, objective signals which include all the visible behavior of the mother, and subjective signals which are connected to an intuitive transmission of the maternal feelings. It is chiefly these preverbal signals which condition the communication between mother and infant. The evolution of the relationship is linked to the idea that the mother forms about the child, an image which is variable and dependent upon many factors. Overprotective or rejecting attitudes are important as the former may lead to aggressivity and the latter to depression. The authors believe that in the course of the first year the most characteristic change in the infant takes place in such general functions as alimentation, sleep, and mood, and that the psychomotor development is unaffected.