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This volume is dedicated to the memory of Margaret S. Mahler, whose work has inspired many of the contributors. Dr. Mahler belonged to a group of pioneers in psychoanalysis who believed that naturalistic observation outside the psychoanalytic situation could yield important knowledge for psychoanalysts. She began her observational research of normal mother-child pairs in 1959, long before such research had become popular.
The early years were filled with excitement: excitement of ideas and excitement of people coming together to think and search, to observe, and to hear Dr. Mahler's incisive understanding and conceptualizing of what they observed. It is hard to remember that at the beginning all we had was Dr. Mahler's hypothesis that normal children all go through a process of psychological birth — the separation-individuation process — and her belief that this intrapsychic process could be inferred from observing mothers and their infants and toddlers in a naturalistic setting. The methodology as well as the conceptualizations evolved during the first three years of research. All of us working with Dr. Mahler had an opportunity to be part of a creative process.
What were Margaret Mahler's special qualities that could lead, in such relatively short time, to the formulations of the basic theory? She combined impeccable attention to all details with the intuition and skill of the psychoanalyst who could look to the heart of things. She never allowed the essential points to become lost in the mass of detailed observations. Nothing was too small or “unimportant” to escape her attention. She was indefatigable and would persevere at any effort until she was satisfied. She had strong opinions about what she saw, but she never clung to her opinions if new observations seemed to disprove them. Shortly before her death she modified