Introduction

From the moment of birth, and perhaps before, a baby's development is influenced by the quality of his mother's response to his presence and communications. Each infant is potentially a unique little person from whom his mother and his father have to learn anew, however many children they may have had before.

This book tries to describe some of the important aspects of the development of infants and young children from birth to school age, illustrated by vignettes of scenes between parents and children. The points selected for discussion do not give a comprehensive coverage of all aspects of personality development in the early years, and do not aim to present parents with norms. They do touch upon many of the questions and feelings evoked in the intense emotional relationship between parents and children at this time. It is therefore a move away from the tendency to think of child development in terms of “normality” towards thinking of children as individuals.

For coming to realise how much one may learn from the observation of infants growing up in their families I am indebted to my training in Kleinian psychoanalysis, and especially to Esther Bick, who instituted weekly infant observation as a basic