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 richness and complexity of this book make it a pleasure to read and a challenge to review. The overall objective of this ambitious volume is to “explicate the value of infant research and a systems view for psychoanalysis” (p. 232). The authors organize the book into a review of the relevant infant research and the delineation of a dyadic systems model, derived from infant research and illustrated with clinical cases of adult psychoanalytic patients.
Beebe and Lachmann succeed in many important ways, particularly in their comprehensive review of the literature on infant research and in their presentation of a sophisticated and meticulously crafted systems model of developmental and therapeutic dyadic processes. In fact, the excellent review of the infant research literature provides a concise summary for the expert in the field, as well as a superb introduction to the reader interested in developmental psychology and the relevance of new findings in this field to the practicing psychoanalyst. Although the authors make major strides, an integration of infant research and adult psychoanalysis remains elusive.
The authors' dyadic systems model builds upon a secure foundation in infant research. A central element of this model is Louis Sander's set of concepts about the generation of agency in the infant–caregiver relationship through self and interactive regulatory processes.1 The model is presented in concise form in chapter 2, and is elaborated in relation both to research data and to clinical cases in the chapters that follow. These additional elaborations add new complexity, which the authors attempt to deal with in various ways, such as by emphasizing the organizing principle of ongoing regulation. Yet, in developing a systems model applicable to psychoanalysis, the authors must strike a balance between complexity and coherence; this proves difficult to achieve and to maintain, particularly as one moves from theory to practice. The value of complexity in this