Pete the diesel: Psychotherapy with a severely disturbed five-year-old boy

The psychic significance of the figure of the grandmother in psychodynamic psychotherapy has received scant attention. This paper develops the concept of the ‘grandmaternal transference’ in parent–infant psychotherapy and explores its identification, its possible functions and its therapeutic significance. The grandmaternal transference has special relevance to parent–infant psychotherapy since the grandmother often represents both the mother’s mother and the child’s grandmother and offers a unique third position between mother and child. Three clinical vignettes illustrate how the grandmaternal transference may operate in this third position. In the first vignette, the therapist becomes in the transference a containing grandmother thereby facilitating maternal containment. In the second case, the therapist may be experienced as a differentiating grandmother able to help mother and infant with separation and individuation. In the third one, the therapist is transferentially experienced as a paternal grandmother who acts as a pseudo-father able to embody the paternal function. In each of these positions, the transference and countertransference – whether positive or negative – require that the therapist responds to rather than enacts the grandmaternal role. The three configurations of the grandmaternal transference have different clinical manifestations and offer different therapeutic ports of entry.     

Positive maternal interaction behavior moderates the relation between maternal anxiety and infant regulatory problems

Regulatory problems in infancy are determined by different risk factors. This study aims to examine how psychosocial risk factors are connected, and how they impact the early regulatory ability of 3-month-old infants. In a sample of 57 mother–infant dyads, maternal anxiety and infant crying, sleeping and feeding habits were assessed. As a possible moderator, the role of positive maternal behavior was analyzed by videotaping face-to-face interactions. During the interaction, interactive stress was provoked with the face-to-face still-face paradigm (FFSF). Thus, this study differentiated between the effects of maternal behavior in both an ordinary play context, as well as a stressful interaction context. Results revealed that the relation between maternal anxiety and infant regulatory problems in crying and sleeping varied as a function of positive maternal engagement in stressful situations. However, a significant moderation effect influencing infant feeding problems could not be demonstrated. These findings stress the importance of positive maternal interaction behavior in at least some parts of regulatory adjustment of at-risk infants.     

Being present for each other: long-distance video-linked seminars

This paper describes technical issues in setting up and using long-distance learning equipment. It also describes aspects of long-distance learning during stages of the learning process and evaluations of the method. The use of the countertransference is also discussed as an important aspect of the work.     

A brief episode of psychosis: Elli's story

This paper explores the notion of a GP practice as a ‘secure base’, suggesting that greater attention could usefully be paid to the importance of attachment relationships in primary care. If professionals feel secure and respected within ‘the practice’ then ‘the practice’ itself is more likely to be able to function as a ‘secure base’ for its patients. It is suggested that this concept could be developed further to provide a conceptual framework for practices to examine their function as therapeutic organizations. A short resumé of John Bowlby's attachment theory is outlined. Illustrations are given of how different attachment styles – secure, avoidant, ambivalent or disorganized – might affect patient care. A case of a mother (with postnatal depression) and her infant is considered in detail to illustrate the value of early intervention in a mother-infant relationship. Professionals are also attached to the practices where they work and the author reflects on his own retirement from being a GP (after 35 years). Finally, the paper describes another case – of a patient who was able to relive, and possibly repair, some of her earlier traumatic childhood separations through her relationship and parting from her GP as retirement approached.     

Sensitivity to First‐Order Relations of Facial Elements in Infant Rhesus Macaques

Faces are visually attractive to both human and nonhuman primates. Human neonates are thought to have a broad template for faces at birth and prefer face‐like to non‐face‐like stimuli. To better compare developmental trajectories of face processing phylogenetically, here, we investigated preferences for face‐like stimuli in infant rhesus macaques using photographs of real faces. We presented infant macaques aged 15–25 days with human, macaque and abstract faces with both normal and linear arrangements of facial features and measured infants' gaze durations, number of fixations and latency to look to each face using eye‐tracking technology. There was an overall preference for normal over linear facial arrangements for abstract and monkey faces but not human faces. Moreover, infant macaques looked less at monkey faces than at abstract or human faces. These results suggest that species and facial configurations affect face processing in infant macaques, and we discuss potential explanations for these findings. Further, carefully controlled studies are required to ascertain whether infant macaques' face template can be considered as broad as human infants' face template. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Exploration of Parenting Behaviours and Attitudes During Early Infancy: Association with Maternal and Infant Characteristics

The importance of warm and democratic parenting styles for optimal social, emotional and cognitive outcomes in children over the age of five is well established. However, there is a dearth of literature exploring variations in parenting styles during infancy, despite many popular parenting books aimed at this period. The primary aim of this study was to explore parenting styles in infancy and their association with infant and maternal characteristics. Five hundred and eight mothers of infants under 12 months of age completed a 36‐item questionnaire examining cognitive and behavioural aspects of early parenting (Infancy Parenting Styles Questionnaire). Items for the questionnaire were generated from popular culture early parenting books, and those raised in discussion with mothers. The underlying factor structure of the Infancy Parenting Styles Questionnaire revealed five independent factors: discipline, routine, anxiety, nurturance and involvement, which mapped onto existing concepts of warmth/nurturance and control for parenting older children, with additional constructs pertaining to the challenge of caring for young infants. Early parenting style was associated with maternal age and education, and infant birth weight, gender and age. The findings are discussed in relation to the parenting styles literature for older children and the attachment literature. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of Infant Positive Emotionality: The Contribution of Maternal Characteristics and Effects on Subsequent Parenting

The current study examined the influence of maternal characteristics on the development of infant smiling and laughter, a marker of early positive emotionality (PE) and how maternal characteristics and the development of infant PE contributed to subsequent maternal parenting. One hundred fifty‐nine mothers with 4‐month‐old infants participated. Maternal characteristics were assessed 4 months postpartum, infant smiling and laughter were assessed at 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months postpartum, and maternal negative parenting was assessed 18 months postpartum. Latent growth modelling was used to test hypotheses regarding the influence of maternal characteristics on the development of infant smiling and laughter, and the contribution of infant smiling and laughter to later maternal parenting. Higher maternal effortful control and PE predicted more initial infant smiling and laughter, whereas more maternal parenting stress predicted lower slopes of infant smiling and laughter. More frequent/intense symptoms of maternal depression predicted higher scores on a measure of negative parenting, whereas higher maternal PE and better effortful control predicted lower negative parenting scores. After accounting for maternal characteristics, higher intercepts and slopes of infant smiling and laughter predicted fewer reports of negative parenting practices. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The movement of internal facial features elicits 7 to 8‐month‐old infants' preference for face patterns

A preference for static face patterns is observed in newborns and disappears around 3 months after birth. A previous study has demonstrated that 5‐month‐old infants prefer schematic faces only when the internal features are moving, suggesting that face‐specific movement enhances infants' preference. The present study investigates the facilitative effect of the movement of internal facial features on infants' preference. To examine infants' preference, we used animated face patterns consisting of a head‐shaped contour and three disk blobs. The inner blobs expanded and contracted to represent the opening and closing of the eyes and mouth, and were constrained to open and close only in a biologically possible vertical direction resembling the facial muscle structure. We compared infants' preferential looking time for this vertically moving (VM) face pattern with their looking time for a horizontally moving (HM) face pattern in which blobs transformed at the same speed in a biologically impossible, horizontal direction. In Experiment 1, 7 to 8‐month‐olds preferred the VM to the HM, but 5 to 6‐month‐olds did not. However, the preference was diminished in both cases when the moving face patterns were presented without contour (Experiment 2). Our results suggest that internal facial features with vertical movements promote face preference in 7 to 8‐month‐olds. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On receiving what has gone astray, on finding what has got lost

Disturbing emotions that act as bodily cryptograms waiting to be deciphered are currently understood as intra-psychic trauma. The author briefly discusses Fordham's concepts of deintegration and primitive identity, as well as early patterns of mother-infant attunement to describe how the empathic capacity of the analyst is dramatically challenged in helping patients to give birth to unbearable emotions that remain an undifferentiated entity. Referring to Ogden's understanding of the mechanism of projective identification, the author will explore how unconscious mental processes in the analyst and the patient can work at re-activating failures in the deintegrative process. Clinical material is presented to show how unconscious psychic events that affect the patient but cannot be known consciously can be born into mind by the analytic couple.     

When and for whom does crying improve mood? A daily diary study of 1004 crying episodes

We aimed to examine the connections between individual affective characteristics and crying, and to evaluate Rottenberg, Bylsma, and Vingerhoets’ (2008) framework for studying crying and mood. We analyzed the relationship among features of the social environment, mood characteristics of the crier, crying frequency/urge to cry, and mood change across 1004 detailed crying episodes sampled from 97 females. Urge to cry and crying frequency were associated with poorer mood, and urge to cry was associated with greater mood variability. Poorer mood was observed both before and after crying episodes, and one-third of crying episodes resulted in reported mood improvement following crying. Benefits of crying, when they occur, are shaped by the social environment and the affective characteristics of the crier.