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Since its inception, The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child has enjoyed a fine reputation for offering excellent contributions to the
literature of behavioral science. This edition, by maintaining the high standards previously established, attests to the wisdom of the current editors.
The volume begins with two obituaries: one of Bertram D. Lewin by Lawrence Kubie, the other of Marian Cabot Putnam by Eleanor Pavenstedt. Both serve as touching reminders of the professional and personal contributions made by these two psychoanalysts.
The first section of Volume XXVIII, Aspects of Normal and Pathological Development, includes Dorothy Burlingham's paper titled The preoedipal Infant-Father Relationship. Burlingham presents a number of significant findings based on personal observations, the analyses of young men, and observations of infants at the Hampstead Clinic. At times, maternal attitudes of the father can compensate for deficiencies in the mother-infant relationship. Eye contact, smiling responses, and the first feelings of stimulation of enjoyment can all serve to enhance and deepen the father-child relationship from the earliest weeks. While there are individual differences, Burlingham observed that fathers generally tend to stimulate and excite their children more than mothers do. This stimulation is considered an aid in the development of the infant's body image. The author discusses her observations of a child's preference for father, his greeting father after an absence, and his demands for father's care at specific times for specific reasons. She also notes the danger of a narcissistic wound to the father if he happens to be the first recipient of the infant's eighth-month 'stranger anxiety'. Burlingham believes that in spite of changes in child care brought about by current attitudes toward the equality of the sexes, characteristics of femininity and maleness of parents will continue to exist and evoke in infants differentiated emotional reactions