This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
For a long time psychiatrists, and especially psychoanalysts, have been aware that the crucial period for the development of healthy and sick personalities lies in the first weeks of life and that this development is dependent upon the crucial transactions between mother and infant. Reconstructive attempts from psychiatric interviews and deep analysis of the patient's memories of the past have not sufficed to do more than focus attention on this early period. Many small studies have been reported of observations on the early mother-child relationships in the first weeks of life, but these have been sporadic and for the most part not well conceived or documented. Therefore, when Dr. Brody's book appeared, the medical profession looked forward with a great deal of anticipation to learning about her long-term careful studies of the behavior of mothers and infants in the first period of life. Her book far surpasses expectations in the