Ascher discusses a case of intergenerational pathology, in which she treated the mother and her sixteen-month-old daughter conjointly and met with the mother and father as needed. She describes the unfolding process, the dynamics involved, and her interventions and their effects. She demonstrates the therapeutic effect of resolving the symbiotic tie between the child and her mother, and, concomitantly,

between the latter and her mother. She focuses not only on the emerging sense of self in mother and child, but also on the child's developing sense of gender identity and the conflicts related to it.