Developmental Science and Psychoanalysis

As a discipline psychoanalysis began at the interface of mind and brain and has always been about those most basic questions of biology and psychology: loving hating what brings us together as lovers parents and friends and what pulls us apart in conflict and hatred. These are the enduring mysteries of life and especially of early development-how young children learn the language of the social world with its intertwined biological genetic and experiential roots and how infants translate thousands of intimate moments with their parents into a genuine intuitive emotional connection to other persons. Basic developmental neuroscience and psychology has also of late turned to these basic questions of affiliation: of how it is that as humans our most basic concerns are about finding establishing preserving and mourning our relationships. These areas in broad strokes are the substance of mind and brain and the last decade has brought much new science to the biology of attachment love and aggression.