The music of containment: Addressing the participants in mother-infant psychoanalytic treatment

Infant Mental Health Journal
Björn Salomonsson

Abstract

The author discusses the psychoanalyst's approach in mother-infant treatments. Emphasis is given to the infant as an important, though often neglected, addressee. A clinical example is used in which a telephone call during a prior session triggered fretting in a 3-month-old girl and distress in her mother. It is suggested that in the session, nonverbal levels of the interventions reached the girl and contained her, and that this containment worked along similar lines as the communicative musicality between mother and baby. In the discussion, the psychoanalytic concept of containment (Bion, 1962) is linked with the concept of communicative musicality (Trevarthen & Aitken, 2001). The mother's need for containment also is emphasized, and the therapist must be on alert when it is essential to focus on either participant in the therapy room. This choice is guided both by explicit deliberations and by the unconscious countertransference. However, the therapist's wish to grasp the countertransference is countered by his or her unwillingness of being reminded of feelings of infantile helplessness. Similarly, when the mother's conscious and unconscious messages diverge, the baby's ability to receive her caretaking is compromised. In the...Continue Reading

Associated Clinical Trials

Jun 18, 2009·Bjorn Salomonsson, Bjorn Salomonsson

References

Jan 1, 1975·Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry·S FraibergV Shapiro
Jan 1, 1986·Scandinavian Journal of Psychology·O Andkjaer Olsen, S Køppe
Aug 1, 1997·Archives of Disease in Childhood·L Murray, P Cooper
Jan 1, 1965·Acta paediatrica Scandinavica·B PERSSONK EKENGREN
Nov 23, 2006·Acta Psychologica·Philippe Rochat
Nov 30, 2006·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Siegfried Zepf
Mar 16, 2007·Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines·Ruth Feldman
Oct 3, 2007·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Björn Salomonsson
May 1, 2008·Infant Mental Health Journal·Daniel Stern

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Citations

May 20, 2017·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Björn Salomonsson
Aug 9, 2013·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Bjorn Salomonsson
Dec 3, 2014·Infant Mental Health Journal·Majlis Winberg SalomonssonBjörn Salomonsson

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