Conceptual and methodological issues in the study of Internal Representation: A commentary on Infant Mental Health Journal,volume 10.3

This commentary raises issues about the current state of research on internal representation, using the Special Issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal on “Internal Representation and Parent-Infant Relationships” as a point of departure. Current research is praised for its emphasis on subjectivity and intersubjectivity in relationships, for integrating viewpoints from a variety of disciplines, and for the development of innovative investigatory approaches. At the same time, however, an overemphasis on quantitative methods is cited as possibly raising the risk of prematurely limiting an investigation of these issues that is broad-based enough to reflect their intricacy in actual experience. Instead, a more varied approach is sought, in which operationalizability is viewed as one of many potential sources of methodological validity rather than as the most important one. More purely clinical and theoretical approaches are particularly appropriate to the study of internal representation and intrafamilial relationships because access to personal, interior experience must rely on such forms as language and the techniques of clinical inquiry.