PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR MOTHER AND INFANTS IN P ROBLEM FAMILIES

This article reports on a project in which mothers living in condition s describable as suproletarian are given psychotherapeutic treatment a longside practical care. The special feature of this system of compreh ensive care for mothers from so-called >> hard-to reach-families << is that it begins during pregnancy, is instituted via the agency of midw ives and that the therapeutic sessions are designed on a long-term bas is and take place in the mothers' own homes. In two detailed case repo rts the authors describe their methods and define the objectives pursu ed by this project - the stabilization of the mothers in their family life situation and the prevention, from birth, of disturbances and dis abilities otherwise to be anticipated in the children themselves