THE APPLICATION OF INFANT RESEARCH TO PSYCHOANALYTIC-THEORY AND THERAPY

First, five areas of influence of infant research on psychoanalytic th erapy are outlined: (a) the interpersonal competency of newborns, (b) the progressive organization of development without points of fixation , (c) the nonpejorative conceptualization of dependency, (d) the poten tial for explaining psychic structure as interrelations of systems, an d (e) the explanatory benefit of using state regulation, rather than d rives, as motivation for behavior. Then, clinical vignettes demonstrat e the applicability of infant research to work via a focus on the inne r states of the participants and the development of a ''recognition pr ocess'' by which the specifics of a sense of self are developed. In ad dition, the applicability of this research is reviewed in three more c ircumscribed areas: the interactive nature of psychotherapy, the appli cation of studies of attunement and ''open space'' in mother-infant in teractions, and the usefulness of experimental paradigms for generatio n of clinical hypotheses.