Infant Development Essay

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Q2. ‘There is no such thing as an infant….whenever one finds an infant, one finds maternal care’ (Winnicott,1960,p.39). Drawing on both your reading and brief illustrations from infant observation, discuss the significance of the early mother-infant relationship in supporting the infant’s emotional development. 1000 words Add mirroring, false self... How does the early infant relationship support the infant’s emotional development? Winnicott's statement draws our attention to the intimate connection that exists between an infant and their mother. By infant he is referring to the very young child who depends on maternal care that is based on empathy which he names ‘primary maternal preoccupation’. In this time infants cannot begin to be, to exist, except under certain conditions. The infant is in a state of absolute dependence. It is this dependence that is key to Winnicott's perception of mother-infant interactions. With the mothers careful attention to the babies needs, she helps the baby to exist, and develop as a person in their own right. “This is a period of ego development, and integration is the main feature of such a development. The ID forces clamour for attention. At first they are external to the infant. In health the ID becomes gathered into the service of the ego, and the ego masters the ID, so that ID satisfactions become ego-strengtheners”. (Winnicott p40) So for example, the baby cries as a result of it’s bodily need for hunger, and the mother responds to the babies need, prioritising it above other demands. She stops speaking on the phone, or any other activity in order to feed her baby. Winnicott states that she is drawn to do this through an identification with her babies needs, through the experience ... ... middle of paper ... ...ry around mother infant care. Idealisation of mothers is linked with the denigration of mothers and predisposes mothers to fail. Pathologising maternal ambivalence and the subjective experience of mothers leads to a demonising of mothers as the cause of all ills in the child. Freud for example proposed that a mother's feelings, and in particular towards her son fosters the 'most perfect, the most free from ambivalence of all human relationships' (1933, p. 133). Perhaps a wider appreciation of the mother-infant dyad would provoke a greater understanding of what an infant encounters as part of a normal infancy. It also provokes us to ask how the non-biological mother equipped to mother her child? What of the significance of other relationships the infant encounters with the father and siblings for example? http://www.mamsie.bbk.ac.uk/documents/raphael-leff.pdf

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