Psychodynamic psychotherapy with infants and parents

Abstract Psychoanalytic theory has always relied on speculations about the infant’s mind, but clinical practice was slow in taking on babies and parents. Parent–infant psychotherapy methods have evolved during the last 50 years. They differ in emphasizing support or insight, attributing roles to mother and baby in therapy, and focusing on unconscious influences in mother and baby. They also differ in relying on classical psychoanalytic theory, attachment psychology, developmental psychology, and infant research. Each method also contains assumptions, often tacit, about the kind of samples it is best suited for. This chapter critically reviews the best-known modes of psychodynamic therapy with infants and parents.