Earliest Relationship

<p>Never before has research on newborn behavior and parent-infant interaction been fully integrated with psychoanalytic insight into parents' emotions and fantasies. This book provide a vivid glimpse of the parents' daydreams and narcissistic wishes which grow into a desire for a child and they show how these feelings develop into important attachments to the unborn infant during pregnancy. The power and competence of the newborn born then challenges parental fantasies desires wishes and expectations creating the beginnings of the bond between parent and child. Using the latest research the authors clarify all the ways the infant participates in the dawning relationship and the ingredients of very early communication and interaction. They then unveil the imaginary interactions which lend meaning and drama to each gesture and expression. We see the baby as Tyrant as Savior or as the reincarnation of lost relationships. Everyone who cares for mothers and babies-pediatricians developmental and clinical psychologists psychiatrists early childhood specialists nurses and social workers-as well as interested parents will find this book of immediate value.</p>