Mothers, Fathers, and Children. Explorations in the Formation of Character in the First Seven Years: By Sylvia Brody and Sidney Axelrad. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1978. 669 pp.

This comprehensive book is a longitudinal study of the relationship between forms of parental care and the psychological development of the child. It is a follow-up of these authors' research on the behavior of infants in the first year of life.1 In the earlier study Brody and Axelrad hypothesized that it is possible to construct a typology of nurturing in the first year of life and to predict that the quality of mothering will be reflected in the infant's development; the more adequately mothered infants will have a smoother and better development compared to the less adequately mothered ones. Using clinical ratings and various statistical profile analyses, they concluded that these hypotheses were borne out for their sample of one hundred thirty-one mothers and infants.

In the present work, the authors report on the same babies (and mothers—and some fathers) through the seventh year of childhood. The current study began when the oldest infants in the previous study reached the age of four and the youngest, two.

The raw research data of the current volume consist of direct observation of mothers, fathers, and children, as well as sophisticated objective tests at different developmental stages, school visits, and exhaustive analyses of the drawings of the children at ages four to five. Many inferences about psychic processes are drawn from the theoretical and clinical interpretations of the data. The authors feel that their elaborations of the propositions of classical psychoanalysis, based on objective evidences of intrapsychic conflict at ages four to five, support their assumptions concerning oedipal development in