The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant

by Fred Pine, Margaret S. Mahler, Anni Bergman

Book Overview

The pioneering contribution to infant psychology that gave us separation and individuation documents with standard-setting care the intrapsychic process of a child's emergence from symbiotic fusion... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465066593
• ISBN13: 9780465066599
• Release Date: July 1975
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

If you can understand this book, you will be able to understand adult psychopathology as the outcome

This is a very important book to the professional who works with people of all ages. It focuses on what the child needs in the way of early attachment for the infant-toddler to feel secure and emotionally alive via the living relationship with the caretaker. If/when the attachment is not good enough to match the infants specific needs, then we can see the possible problems that can flow form this early deficit in attachment and follows into other forms of emotional issues. I would change the title of this book to include the importance of attachment as the necessary ingrediant facilitating the process of Individuation of the infant. This attachment is related to the bi-directional emotional cues between mother and infant (and father too) and the caretaker's responses.

For the psychologist and interested layperson

This book provides a fascinating look of the psychological development of the self in the first year of life. It uses a lot of psychoanalytic terms that I was not familiar with, but you can get the main idea. It's a great read for anyone who works with young children, teens, or adults, and deals with attachment issues.

Excellent Research Book

This includes the original study of Margaret S. Mahler for which she is most famous. Absolutely necessary for researching her Separation Individuation Theory.

Early Child Development and Autism

If more new parents and/or future parents would read and understand the theories in this incredible book, there would be far less diagnoses of autism, bi-polar disorder and childhood depression in America. This book is invaluable if you want to raise a health, happy child.

The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant

This is a classic, well worth reading and re-reading. It is a reflection of powerful insights.