The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A View from Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology

I lost my earlier edition in Hurricane Katrina. This book is must reading for every serious student of human development,including parents and professionals who work with people of all ages. The text describes years of infant observation and developmental research in a highly-readable format. As a psychoanalytic-psychotherapist, it is a continuous reference work, which is why I chose to replace it in my professional library. In my opinion it is "must" reading for teachers, clergy, counselors, child care specialists, and medical professionals who work directly in serving people. Why? Because human beings are relationally-organized in their developmental history, and this wonderful text outlines the foundations. Having been on the forefront of clinical work with traumatized survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005), I know on the basis of my own first-hand experience how totally disorganizing adult onset trauma affects people; the ability of the core-self to recover from such wounding becomes the significant issue. The "sense of self" lies at the core of the issues involved in healing and psychological recovery. I really missed my "lost copy" and am most grateful to once again have it at my fingertips. Walton H. Ehrhardt, EdD, LPC, LMFT, CGP

Thirty-four years in "the game;" twenty-two of them with some form of certification or license. I told someone else in the game I was into the developmentalists. She said, "Read this." There are good books, great books, and life changers. For me, TIWOTI is somewhere between the latter categories. (I'd give it =six= stars if I could.) Stern not only effectively built a case for a very solid, neo-neo-Freudian nosology of very early life development, he ties it all together with what it needs to be tied up =to=: the clinical implications for those who will deal with the results... of the pre-cognitive core self, of a new way of looking at attachment, of maternal attunement, of purposeful consciousness, of agency, of the formation of the verbal symbolic -- and thus =cognitive= -- self. His notion of the "observed" -- as opposed to "theoretical" -- infant could only have been devised in the new era of computer-facilitated, empirical research that had dawned in the decade preceding the first edition (1985). He makes no assertions without grounding them in statistics. For those of us who thought we had it all "down" with the great Erik Erikson, John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, Margaret Mahler, Melanie Klein, Don Winnicott and Diana Baumrind, this will come as a real eye-opener. Because Stern can =see= into the developing mind by virtue of a rigorous means of empirical observation. Many (though by no means all) of the pure Freudian and British Object Relations theories fall like flies before a can of Flit. Here =is= the platform Terry Brazelton, Alan Schore and my cross-town colleague David Seigel had to climb up upon to provide us with all the hugely valuable insights they have added since this book fell in their laps. Stern argues for parallel and continuous, rather than discrete and staged, ego development. (His work greatly influenced my own about the continuous parallel processing of the seperate ego parts we can =observe= in the borderline personality organization.) Stern presents us with a neonate and infant who is "working on himself" at every level that his continuing neurological maturation makes possible for him. No linear phases of "trust here" or "autonomy there" or "initiative over there" (though I continue to =observe= that these processes and acquitions influence each other). He and his associates and contributors see =all= of the supposed Erikson stages in process from the git in =cyclical= and interactive, rather than linear and stair-step fashion. (Watch a five-month old =after= you've read this. It's all so self-evident, I wonder now how I missed it for so long.) His notions about the socializing influence of maternal mis-attunement rooted in the mother's own socialized "false self" had such immense ramifications for those of us who deal with borderlines and other dissociatives that I had to put the book down and wander around for a half hour in a daze of inter-hemispheric computation on that =alone=. "Gradually, with

This is an excellent book that outlines the infant to caregiver bond in human development. Dr. Stern challenges the traditional developmental sequence and the erroneous views that certain fundamental attachment patterns are confined to infancy alone. This is a great book that understands how scaffolding works in establishing patterns of relationship that can last a lifetime. The fundamental basics that make our human bonds to one another pleasurable and fulfilling are rooted in the establishment of secure attachments, trust and the creation of balance in human giving and receiving. He outlines what can go 'right' and what can go 'wrong' in these early bonds. His focus on loving and attuned presence, reading cues of overstimulation, or understimulation, captures the essence and joy that is both given and received when caretaking is done well or as has been described elsewhere, is 'good enough'. A great read and guide also for parents and clinicians, a great step in helping to build empathy and awareness about this critical period in human development. Highly recommended.

Dr. Stern did an excellent job in describing human development that is empirically based. What has resulted is a questioning of Dr. Margaret Mahler's 1st and 2nd stages of development. Though Dr. Mahler's work is superb, her theory is derived from observation, whereas Dr. Stern utilized computer technology to research similar material consequently presenting a major contribution to the literature. Finally, his writing style is easy to read that all readers can benefit from, especially those who have or work with children. I recommend reading this book.