Intimate Transformations: Babies with their Families

This enriching book describes the value of learning about the development of the human personality through the experience of observing a baby in the context of the family. It is distinctive in the field of infant observation literature, for it shows how the affective learning augments the learning experience. It also highlights a somewhat neglected area of observational study; the relationshio between siblings and its influence on the development of the self-esteem of the younger child.The book comprises three sections: observing babies in their families; application of infant observation studies to work with intensive care units for premature babies and to psychotherapy with adult patients; and the teaching of infant observation using the affective learning model approach. The book is written in a style suitable for both parents and a wide variety of professionals, including paediatricians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and teachers.It is a crucial book for those parents and clinicians who wish to think more about the baby's preverbal emotional life.

About the Author :
Jeanne Magagna was Head of Psychotherapy Services at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children for twenty-two years. She also worked for ten years at Ellern Mede Centre for Eating Disorders in London. She received professional qualifications as a child, adult and family psychotherapist and a doctorate from the Tavistock Clinic. Formerly, Jeanne was the vice-president and joint coordinator of training for the Centro Studi Martha Harris Tavistock model trainings in Florence and Venice. She edited 'Universals of Psychoanalysis' and jointly edited 'Psychotherapy with Families and Intimate Transformations: Babies with their Families' (Karnac Books, 2004). Her special interest is applying the understandings of infant observation to work with children suffering from communication difficulties and anorexia nervosa.

Review :
'This is a pioneering book, first in its study of the power of our brothers and sisters to shape our identities and personalities, and second, in the successful use of video conferencing to contain the intense feelings evoked in all close observers of young infants. The observations themselves make a gripping read. It is vital reading for everyone concerned with the developments of small children.'- Anne Alvarez, PhD, MACP, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist'Remarkable for its breadth and depth, Intimate Transformations is a vivid demonstration of infant observation and its value for the study of human development, psychotherapy practice, education, and institutional consultation. Intimate Transformations immerses therapists in the world of early experience and unconscious fantasy and brings us face to face with the precious resource of our own inner world. The contributors' detailed descriptions are important reading for therapists, parents and educators. They plunge therapists deep into a discussion of the primitive fantasies that underlie the distress of adult patients. they give parents more than a glimpse of subtleties that escape their attention when they are on the front line raising their own children.'- Jill Savege Scharff M.D., M.R.C. Psych, Co-Director International Psychotherapy Institute Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Teaching Analyst, Washington Psychoanalytic Institute