Origins of Possession

Philippe Rochat is Professor of Psychology at Emory University, Atlanta and the head of the Emory Infant and Child Laboratory. His research focuses on the developmental origins of human self-awareness and social cognition in infants and children growing up in different social and cultural circumstances. His work includes Others in Mind (Cambridge, 2009), The Infant's World (2001), Early Social Cognition (1999) and The Self in Infancy (1995).

'Throughout his work, Philippe Rochat attempts to identify what is uniquely human. In this book he yet again moves one step closer to a truly intellectually satisfying description. Origins of Possession is essential reading for all those of us who are in the profession of working with the human mind, particularly when it is troubled and is at risk of losing its essential qualities of self-awareness and symbolization. It is a highly significant contribution which builds on Rochat's unparalleled depth of understanding of child development to deliver a view of the nature and experience of possession that transcends development and individual differences - and illuminates both - whilst striking very close to what lies at the core of our experience of ourselves and of others as sentient beings.' Peter Fonagy, Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis and Head, Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London

• Introduction: making sense of human possession; Part I. Psychology: Principles of Human Possession: 1. Experiencing possession; 2. Claiming ownership; 3. Possession and ownership transfer; 4. Symbolic spinoffs of possession; Part II. Development: Human Ontogeny of Possession: 5. First possession; 6. Ownership in development; 7. Sharing in development; Part III. Culture: Human Possession in Context: 8. Culture and possession; 9. Possession in children across cultures; Conclusion: great transformation.