Baby as Subject

Campbell Paul is a Consultant Infant and Child Psychiatrist at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne and Honorary Principal Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne. At the University he and colleagues established a Graduate Diploma and a Masters Course in Infant and Parent Mental Health. This course developed out of his longstanding experience in paediatric consultation liaison psychiatry and work in infant parent psychotherapy. He has a special interest in the understanding of the inner world of the baby, particularly as it informs therapeutic work with infants and their parents. With colleagues he has developed models of working in therapeutic groups with troubled parents and infants. He has been a consultant psychiatrist at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service has also been involved in the establishment of the Koori Kids Mental Health Network. He has worked with NT child mental health services in Central Australia. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the World Association for Infant Mental Health and has been a participant in and organizer of a number of local and international conferences and activities in the field of infant mental health. Frances Thomson Salo trained with the British Society as a child and adult psychoanalyst, is a Training analyst and past President of the Australian Psychoanalytical Society, Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association Committee of Women in Psychoanalysis, an editorial board member of the 'International Journal of Psychoanalysis', a consultant infant mental health clinician at the Royal Women's Hospital and child psychotherapist at the Royal Children's Hospital, an Honorary Fellow of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, an Associate Professor on the faculty of the University of Melbourne Graduate Diploma for Infant and Parent Mental Health, and has published on child and infant-parent psychotherapy.

'This book brings the reader even closer to the baby's experience through the imaginative work of these Australian clinicians, in the way that they have built their interventions around the individual "baby as subject in the presence of the parents". Coming from this perspective, the editors and authors deeply enrich the multidisciplinary field of infant mental health and the discipline of parent-infant psychotherapy.'- Tessa Baradon, manager and lead clinician of the Anna Freud Centre Parent Infant Project, London, and Visiting Professor, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa'This volume captures an approach to infant-parent therapeutic intervention where the experience of the infant is central. The infant is seen as a communicating subject with a unique perspective and capacity to engage and use the therapies described. A variety of case examples are used to powerfully illustrate the importance of direct work with the infant and the therapist's role in understanding the inner world of the infant.'- Professor Louise Newman AM, Professor of Developmental Psychiatry, Director, Center for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, Monash University, Australia'This collaborative, thought-provoking collection by leading professionals from a range of disciplines is a gratifying work of substantial scholarship and clinical richness. With its singular emphasis on the importance upon understanding the experience of the baby in the parent-infant relationship, Campbell Paul and Frances Thomson-Salo have provided us with a compelling book, which should become an indispensable resource for professionals working with infants and their families everywhere. This thoughtful and humane volume is a remarkable addition to the field of infant and child mental health. A timely and invaluable book.'- Professor J. Kevin Nugent, Director, the Brazelton Institute; Boston Children's Hospital; and Harvard Medical School, USA'The spirit of Donald Winnicott has travelled to Australia and inspired a large team of infant mental health professionals to create a stimulating book of their learning and achievement, both practical and theoretical. This volume should appeal to all professionals who aspire to help troubled parent-infant relationships become "good enough".'- Dr Juliet Hopkins, Honorary Consultant Child Psychotherapist, Tavistock Clinic, London

• Introduction , What I am trying to do when I see an infant with his or her parents , Engaging with the baby as a person: early intervention with parents and infants , Interventions in Acute Health Settings , The sick baby in hospital , Perceptions of parents of tube fed babies: a preliminary analysis , Contingent singing as a therapeutic intervention for the hospitalised full-term neonate , Two children in acute wards , Working in twilight: infant mental health interventions with babies who may die , Infants dependent on technology at home: enabling the staff , Interventions in Crying, Feeding, and Settling Difficulties , Reflux and irritability , Ooey gooey group: a behavioural interactive group for parents and young children with feeding problems , In the nurse’s consulting room , Infant–Parent Therapy , Talking with infants , When twins present: creating space to be seen , Play dough, pooh, and general practice: communications of a two-year-old child , Tom’s perfect world , Babies in groups: the creative roles of the babies, the mothers, and the therapists , Interventions with Infants with Problems of Relating , Infant–parent psychotherapy in a community paediatric setting , The gift of connection: intervention with a two-year-old boy , Attachment to one, two, or to group: an infant mental health intervention with an Indian family in transition , Feeding, the self, and working through the infant’s pathological defences: the seriousness of playfulness , Interventions with Infants Exposed to Family Violence , Infancy and domestic violence: an annotation , Working with a sick baby born of a rape , Sara: psychotherapy with a mother–infant dyad with a background of violence , Reference Papers , Some principles of infant–parent psychotherapy , The infant who looks but does not see , Epilogue: The spare room: a father confronts his fatherhood