Sander’s Life Work, on Mother-Infant Vitality and the Emerging Person

ABSTRACT

In the 1960s, partly a result of the availability of television for micro-analysis of life in spontaneous communication with infants, there was a revolution in the scientific understanding of how the human mind grows. The inquisitive and responsive way a healthy baby moves shows that humans are born for intimate sharing of interests and feelings that are essential for acquiring cultural habits and understanding, including language. A newborn infant was found able to provoke and imitate emotional expressions and responses of another person, and an affectionate mother is ready to make her special contribution to joyful episodes of dialogue with rhythms and emotions that confirm the baby’s interest and eagerness to participate. A leader in this work was the psychoanalyst and neonatologist Louis Sander. His sensitive support and observation of how mothers with different personalities and degrees of self-confidence respond to a young baby’s expressions of need for companionship proved their health is adapted to share and support the expression and growth of impulses for human living.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Colwyn Trevarthen

Since 1971, Colwyn Trevarthen has taught developmental psychobiology at Edinburgh University. He has published on brain development and infant communication, analyzing the motives that lead to affectionate relationships and learning. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, and a Vice-President of the British Association for Early Childhood Education.