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The title of this book is misleading. it should be Selected Studies of Infancy from Birth to Three years. Several chapters deal with special processes such as cognition or motor development during the first three years of life. The deliberate avoidance of biographical and clinical material and the accent on experimental approaches to the study of infants, reflect current trends in nonanalytic developmental research. A neglect of psychoanalytic findings precludes the viewing of the infant within the comprehensive system of child psychology on which prediction and reconstruction can be based.
Too condensed and too selective to be used for students other than those actively engaged in laboratory research, this book will nevertheless interest psychoanalysts who are immersed in the study of infancy. Certain general propositions and a great many excerpts from specialized fields of research, presented in individual chapters, are thought provoking. They challenge us to re-examine psychoanalytic theorizations about infancy and psychoanalytic methods of approach to research.
Authors of several chapters present conclusive data which show that the newborn's behavior cannot be characterized as 'undifferentiated'