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This book addresses itself both to professionals within mental health and to teachers, parents and all those interested in individual human beings and in human relations. The author wishes to illustrate that there is a room inside us for our experiences and for our relation to other people; an inner space which is the basis for our relationship to the outside world. We are able to relate to other people only if we give them room in this inner space. Our experience of the outside world is determined by our inner reality, and is therefore different from one person to another. The author puts great emphasis on the capacity to symbolize and the understanding of language and culture, i.e., a space where transformation can take place; in Winnicott's terms a “transitional space”.
In the first nine chapters, the author follows the development from the moment, a child is being wished for until young adulthood. One is reminded of Erik H. Erikson's seven stages, but Crafoord looks at human development from an object-relational point of view, where the formation of an internal reality out of the relation to early objects is the organizing principle. He illustrates his thinking by letting the reader follow the very different destiny of two individuals; Doris, a wanted child, grows up in a good enough environment, while Bertil is not welcomed by his parents. Bertil's father is an alcoholic and he is a burden for his mother; he is rejected and witnesses hatred and quarrelling instead of love and care.
In the eight last chapters, different inner and outer places are described, what they mean for each individual, and how they influence each other.
In toddler's play, especially girls', one can already recognize phantasies of an inner space populated with people, as if the child through her play prepares a space for a coming child. Each child's first place is in its parents' thoughts. What significance has prenatal life? Observation of fetuses shows that basic tendencies and ways of