Forms of Vitality

Daniel N. Stern is a prominent psychiatrist and psychoanalytic theorist, specializing in infant development. He is the author of a number of books on the subject, notably The Interpersonal World of the Infant (1985). Daniel N. Stern started his training at Harvard University in 1956. He continued his educational career in medicine after which he worked in this field for several years. In 1964, Stern decided to specialize in psychiatric care, and in 1972 he started a psychoanalytic education at Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research . For more than thirty years he has worked in research and practice as well in developmental psychology and psychodynamic psychotherapy . In his research he dedicated his time to the observation of infants and to clinical reconstruction of early experiences. His efforts contribute to currently existing developmental theories. He is well known as an expert researcher of early affective mother-child bonding.

'As science advances in the exploration of the nature of feelings, there is an emerging trend: we are forced to move closer to origins, at the scale of both historical evolution and individual development. In either case, we move closer to life. Daniel Stern, whose studies of the non-verbal interactions of mothers and infants are a landmark, contributes to this trend by investigating the experience of vitality, a composite experience drawn from movement, force, time, space and intention. Here is an important meditation on a central aspect of humanity.' - Antonio Damasio, Director, Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, USA

• INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND; THE ROLE OF THE AROUSAL SYSTEMS, AND THE EXAMPLES OF MUSIC, DANCE, THEATRE AND CINEMA; DEVELOPMENTAL AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS