This text focuses on the interweaving psychic realities and unconscious dynamics between family members in the context of changing patterns of socio-cultural expectations, ethical considerations and biological realities.
Preface -- Introduction: On wild things within – an introduction to psychoanalytic thinking -- Face to Face – Containment and Early Exchange -- Face and façade – the mother’s face as the baby’s mirror -- Mirror-role of mother and family in child development -- Conversations with a two-month-old -- Emotions and emotional communication in infants -- Where the wild things are -- The experience of the skin in early object relations -- A theory of thinking -- Unprocessed Residues1 -- Ghosts in the nursery: a psychoanalytic approach to the problems of impaired infant–mother relationships -- Therapeutic interventions in infancy: two contrasting cases of persistent crying -- Sleep problems in babies and young children -- Into the night: children’s dream books -- Unconscious communication -- The dead mother complex -- Representations and Reality -- Joy and woe: response to prenatal testing -- Parenting an infant with a birth defect – the regulation of self-esteem -- Amanda: observations and reflections of a bottle-fed baby who found a breast mother -- Cannibalism and succour: is breast always best? (thoughts on ‘Amanda’) -- Management Issues -- Psycho-analytic insight and relationships -- Understanding the language of babies -- The effect of infants’ behaviour on maternal mental health -- Management of perinatal loss of a twin -- Pregnancy after stillbirth or neonatal death: psychological risks and management -- Feeding disorders
