Response to Lombardi

Abstract

We address some of the individual points that Lombardi makes, some that we agree with and some that as infant mental health clinicians we do not agree with—for example, that at the beginning of life the mind is still not there—and try to show why we think that is.

Notes

¹ See also Atlas (2018), who made the point that our paper integrated old and new ideas on infants and sexuality, diving into difficult areas: the infant’s sexual excitement, parental sexuality, and in particular the sexual subjectivity of the mother and introduced both the mother and the baby as sexual agents.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Frances Thomson-Salo

Frances Thomson-Salo, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and Past President and Training Analyst of the Australian Psychoanalytical Society and a Fellow of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis College. She is on the faculty of the University of Melbourne Masters in Infant and Parent Mental Health and published Infant Observation: Creating Transformative Relationships (Karnac, 2014).

Campbell Paul

Campbell Paul, M.B., B.S., is a Consultant Infant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist at the Royal Children’s and Royal Women’s Hospitals Melbourne. He coordinates the University of Melbourne postgraduate training program in infant mental health. He is President-Elect of the World Association for Infant Mental Health and Director of Newborn Behavioural Observation Australia.