Prologue: Ed Tronick’s Contribution to the Theory and Technique of Psychoanalysis

This issue is devoted to the work of Professor Ed Tronick, developmental scientist and theoretician, whose work has had a major influence on researchers in various disciplines, as well as on clinicians throughout the world. The motivation for this edition of Psychoanalytic Inquiry came from the journal, but the authors asked to prepare articles for the issue eagerly embraced the concept. I was asked to edit the issue and provide an introduction, as well as some final observations. This prologue consists of summaries of the eight articles in the issue. The epilogue provides my final observations.

The articles in this issue include six primarily theoretical articles—those by Beebe and Lachmann, Cooper, Fonagy, the Klein group, Lichtenberg, and Trevarthen—and two articles that include major clinical illustrations—those by Apter and Davis. The authors of the theoretical articles were asked to discuss Tronick’s work from the point of view of a particular theory: ego psychological, relational, attachment, Kleinian, self-psychological, and infant research. However, all of the articles have moved beyond the constraints of one theory to present a more complex and nuanced point of view. Beebe and Lachmann emphasize the importance of Tronick’s theories as powerful contributions to the understanding of therapeutic action. They note correspondences between their self-and-other regulation model and Tronick’s mutual regulation model (MRM) and between their concept of “heightened affective moments” and Tronick’s dyadic expansion of consciousness. Cooper and Fonagy, also writing theoretical articles, both point out the need to balance Tronick’s concept of the uniqueness of the relationship and the constantly evolving meanings within that uniqueness, with the stability or continuity of the self in each member of the dyad. Similarly, the Klein group emphasizes a continuity of perspective on the inner reality of the child. Their theoretical article is elaborated with clinical references