Talking with infants: A bridge to cross-cultural intervention

Abstract

Infant-led psychotherapies are receiving increasing attention. Talking to the infant directly has proven to be a useful way of engaging the infant as well as the mother, particularly in a cross-cultural setting. The setting of a community clinic is described with attention given to the manner in which the political and economic contexts of the local circumstances affect the clinician. The intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy given to a 6-month-old infant is recounted in order to illustrate the ability of the baby to use the therapeutic space. This is followed by two brief cases from the clinic which illustrate similar points and which underscore the therapeutic impact that can be made when personhood is conferred on the infant.


Southern African Jnl Child and Adolescent Mental Health Vol.14(1) 2002:5-14