Following his extraordinarily compact and comprehensive survey of relevant infant studies, Lichtenberg shows us the least speculative and most scientifically responsible conclusions a psychoanalyst can draw and, on that basis, suggests a theory of treatment. This chapter is modest and succinct, and yet it enfolds a mountain of theory.

I want to point out the peaks of that mountain, some fundamental issues the theory engages, a central problem it highlights, and challenges it leaves us with.

Mutual Understanding Is Not the Goal

It is common knowledge that if we grasp somebody's meaning and show him that there is more in it, we regularly expand his experience. And nobody has elaborated this phenomenon better than Lichtenberg. What would be more convenient than to designate that as the engine of treatment change? Yet Lichtenberg says that this is not how meaning expands.