The Mother-Infant Interaction Picture Book

Reviews / Votes

"Describing, measuring and charting the wonders of the cocreated mother-infant relationship, have long been the legendary micro-analytic domain of baby-whisperer and psychoanalyst Beatrice Beebe. Together with her colleagues Phyllis Cohen and Frank Lachmann they have translated decades worth of their sophisticated approach to studying the different patterns in this core human relationship. A highlight of the book is the careful descriptions of what can be observed during the four-month interactions of mothers and babies that predict the child's attachment at 12 months. This unique book and accompanying video will be an invaluable training tool for those working in a range of mental health professions from adult psychotherapy to early childhood practitioners. Extensively cited and hugely influential in psychoanalytic and developmental psychology research circles, core elements of this vital work are now being made available to the world. What a gift!" -- Miriam Steele, Professor and Director of Clinical Training at the New School for Social Research, NY "This book by Beebe, Cohen, and Lachmann is the equivalent of finding a map that illustrates the actual routes-the moment-by-moment forms of action-that lead not only to the complex land of attachment, but to the richer and more complex world of relationships and how they are organized. Using sequences of illustrations of stunning clarity they train your eye to see relational effects of infant looking away, maternal emotional disconnection, the difficulty mothers have in tolerating infant distress, the all-powerful canonical chase and dodge sequence, and an elaboration and extension of my match, mismatch and repair model-from its origins in normal development to their key formulation about how reparation failure distorts relationships. This book is for the researcher studying infants and children and their relationships. It is for the clinician who works with children and parents, couples and adults, and every clinician who wants to see the therapeutic relationship more clearly. To engage with this book is to come to see people and relationships in new and revealing ways." -- Ed Tronick, University Distinguished Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston "A lucid, captivating immersion into the split-second world of infant-parent interaction and the unfolding of infant attachment. Combining scholarship, state-of-the-art research, and clinical insight, this multimedia integration of compelling text, drawings, and video provides an innovative perspective on social and personality development for both parents and researchers." -- Dr. Jeffrey Cohn, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh