Parent-infant psychotherapy, Mother and infant, Motherhood--Psychological aspects 

Stern presents a major synthesis of the newly exploding field of infant mental health and creates a new model of treatment. He shows the critical elements of any parent-infant clinical system: the parents' representations of the relationship with the baby, their overt interactions, the infant's representations of these interactions, and the role of the therapist. Editorial Reviews Review 'This wonderful book will be of enormous value to all those that are helping families... Stern's analytic approach to each of the different kinds of therapeutic family intervention gives us all an insight and choices as we work with parents in difficulty. This is a positive, supportive guide for all professionals who work with young families.'- T. Terry Brazelton, M.D., Harvard Medical School'In this groundbreaking book, Daniel Stern has synthesized diverse empirical, clinical, and theoretical perspectives on mother infant therapies. What emerges from this creative synthesis is a compelling and clinically useful new construct. This book is destined to become an enduring classic. I look forward to the debates and discussions it will inspire.'- Charles H. Zeanah, M.D., Louisiana State University Medical Center'This fascinating book builds and crosses bridges between psychoanalysis and interpersonal systems. Daniel Stern's novel ideas, derived from work with parents and infants, ultimately will inform our thinking about psychotherapy across the lifespan.'- Lee Combrinck-Graham, M.D.'Daniel Stern once again breaks new ground in this wonderfully perceptive book. He combines the scientist's gift for analysis with the clinician's well-developed intuition. The result is a book that transcends narrow theoretical models and challenges the reader to do the same.'- Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD., University of California, San Francisco'Daniel Stern's earlier book The Interpersonal World of the Infant was a classic, and I predict that this book will be another.'- Ethel Person, M.d., Columbia University --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From the Back Cover With the publication in 1985 of The Interpersonal World of the Infant, Daniel N. Stern changed the way we understand how individuals develop a sense of self. Now in this pioneering new work of creative synthesis, he maps out the emerging field of parent-infant psychotherapy and describes a powerful new paradigm for understanding the relationship between parent and child: the motherhood constellation. With the birth of a baby, Stern argues, the mother (and, to some extent, the father) passes into a unique stage of life with a new set of tendencies, sensibilities, fantasies, fears, and wishes. This new organization of mental life - the motherhood constellation - forces clinicians working with mothers and infants to adopt a different treatment framework and therapeutic alliance. From an analysis of the leading schools of parent-infant psychotherapy, Stern crystallizes the factors that effect change. He shows in vivid detail the critical elements of any parent-infant clinical system: the parents' representations of the relationship with their baby, the overt interactions occurring between parent and infant, the infant's representations of these interactions, and the place of the therapist in this clinical system. Through his clear picture of the clinical situation, refined search for what's effective in parent-infant therapy, and illustration of the motherhood constellation, Stern reveals a general new form of therapy. This wholly original view of parent-infant psychotherapy and motherhood, with its practical implications for therapy, is a major contribution to our understanding of human development, psychopathology, and therapy in general.