T. Berry Brazelton, a world-renowned pediatrician and expert in infant development, and Bertrand G. Cramer, a pioneer in infant psychiatry, have joined together to produce an excellent interdisciplinary approach to assessing and intervening in parent-infant interactions that are moving toward “a pattern of failure” (p. xvi).

“The Earliest Relationship brings developmental psychology, infant research and psychoanalytic insight to bear on the period from conception through the early months of life…” (p. xviii). The authors wish to help professionals dealing with infants and mothers in many different capacities to sense trouble signs and head off any contingency problems that may arise (contingency is seen as a “pattern of appropriate responses to a baby's signs, needs and emotional communications…