| Abstract: | While it can reasonable be said that parents have been the leaders in infant mental health research for much longer, the literature traces our beginnings only to the early decades of this century. Early work focused on the astonishing developmental changes in infants deprived of maternal contact during hospitalization, and early questions arose about the possibility of lifelong psychological disorder resulting from such early deprivation. Later research demonstrated that even though the infants are clearly vulnerable, they are also active and very much a reciprocating part of the attachment process. Most recently we have learned to understand caregiver-infant interaction as a display of both the joys and the conflicts in relationship, and methods of intervention are slowly evolving. |
