Afterword: Therapeutic Action in Infant Mental Health

Abstract

Catherine Mallouh’s paper (2022) and the commentaries by Alvarez (2022), Thomson-Salo (2022) and Watanabe (2022) show us the special fluidity, porosity and self-righting tendencies of the infant-parent system in early human development. The baby can be sensitive to inklings of change in the mother, and then responds congenially, so as to recognize and amplify them. This in turn supports the mother’s change process, mobilizing capacities for progressive development in her that were previously inacces-sible. When the baby responds positively – even enthusiastically – to such movement, his own development is enhanced. A virtuous cycle can ensue, as we see in Mallouh’s case. Often, this extends to the rest of the immediate family – other caregivers and parents, siblings, extended family members and wider circles in the neighborhood and the worlds of work and recreation. In the “ideal case,” the damaging potentials of the repetition of the agonizing past are supplanted by the natural potentials for progressive development, to the extent possible.