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PARENT–INFANT THERAPY, AND PARTICULARLY BRIEF THERAPY, is, appropriately enough, one of the largest growth areas in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. This work is also perhaps a meeting point with family therapy concepts.
Tom Main, one of the British “Independents,” said of psychoanalysis that sitting behind a couch five times a week was only one of its applications. With that definition in mind, one need not be shy of thinking of the dramatic and eventful meetings with parents and their infants as equally one of its applications.
At the Tavistock Clinic, a flourishing Under Five's Counselling Service offers brief work with families of infants. I am a part of this service and also work at a baby clinic in a general medical practice in a local health center, alongside the family doctors and “health visitors” who are nurses with special training to support young families.
At both places I see families about difficulties in their infant's development. Many cases are referred as sleeping or feeding problems or excessive crying; in addition, some parents will come, openly talking about their difficulty in “bonding,” in making a relationship with their baby, and now that postnatal depression is so much more easily recognized, many mothers come for help about their state of mind and its effect on their relationship with their baby. With older babies and toddlers, another range of problems are presented: those of weaning and separation difficulties, toilet training, and behavior problems. The