Introduction: Internal representations and parent-infant relationships

Abstract

Infant mental health practitioners have continually striven to understand and to improve disordered parent‐infant relationships. Recently, researchers have begun attempts to describe and study these relationships systematically. There is an increasing interest in the construction of internal representations as indices of how relationship patterns are carried internally and transmitted from parent to child. This special issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal presents theoretical and clinical perspectives on internal representations, as well as results from some preliminary empirical investigations. This new convergence of efforts among theoreticians, clinicians, and investigators may yield important advances in our efforts to capture the complexity and riches of parent‐infant relationships and their disorders.

The child as held in the mind of the mother: The influence of prenatal maternal representations on parenting behaviors

“…In the last two decades, research efforts have focused on examining parents' internal representations of relationships that are specific to individual children (Zeanah & Barton, 1989;Zeanah, Benoit, Hirshberg, & Barton, 1993). A number of research teams have developed comprehensive measures that yield an integrated picture of these representations (Aber, Slade, Berger, Bresgi, & Kaplan, 1985;Bretherton, Biringen, Ridgeway, Maslin, & Sherman, 1989;Zeanah et al, 1993).…”

“…Winnicott, 1966(cited in Winnicott, 1987 The importance of the parent-child relationship in infancy and early childhood as a primary contributor to child development has been wellestablished (Sameroff & Emde, 1989). Theory and research suggest that the mother/child relationship begins when the mother is pregnant and that her prenatal internal representations influence her postnatal internal representations as well as her postnatal relationship with her child (Bibring, Dwyer, Huntington, & Valenstein, 1961;Stern, 1995;Zeanah & Barton, 1989). However, little is known regarding whether prenatal representations predict later parenting behavior and whether contextual factors, such as intimate partner violence (IPV; defined here as male violence toward his female partner), are also influential.…”

Mothers’ experience with their developmentally disordered children: Specificity of internal representations

“…Daugiausia analizuojamas išorinis (fizinis) motinos ir vaiko santykių aspektas, t. y. elgesio sąveikos, daug mažiau skiriama dėmesio vidiniams santykių aspektams -subjektyviai motinos ar vaiko patirčiai (1,9). Daugelis autorių pabrėžia, jog labai svarbu suprasti ne tik fizinę ankstyvąją motinos ir vaiko sąveiką, bet ir tai, ką patiria, išreiškia ir jaučia motina ir vaikas, būdami kartu (10,1). D. N. Stern (11) pabrėžia, jog klinikinėje praktikoje reikėtų galvoti apie du paralelius pasaulius: realų objektyvųjį ("realų" kūdikį motinos rankose) ir vaizduotės, subjektyvųjį pasaulį (kūdikį, kurį motina turi savo vaizduotėje).…”

“…Pradžią šiems tyrimams davė J. Bowlby (1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982), įvesdamas "vidinio darbinio modelio"** terminą ir jį susiedamas su reprezentacijų turiniu (2,11). Remiantis įvairiomis studijomis bei tyrimais, "motinų vidinėmis reprezentacijomis laikysime jos subjekyvųjį patyrimą ir objektyviai vykstančių sąveikos įvykių interpretavimą" (8,10,11). Tai subjektyvi motinos patirtis, susiformuojanti dėl individualių vaiko ypatybių ar dėl sąveikos su vaiku (12).…”

“…Pripažįs-tama, jog klinikinėje praktikoje svarbu suprasti ir keisti vaiko ir motinos santykius, tačiau gana retai raidos problemos analizuojamos kompleksiškai (10). N. Stern-Bruschweiler ir D. N. Stren (8) teigimu, motinų vidinių reprezentacijų modifikavimas neretai turi tapti pagrindiniu gydymo tikslu.…”