Routledge Psychodynamic Interventions in Pregnancy and Infancy: Clinical and Theoretical Perspectives

Psychodynamic Interventions in Pregnancy and Infancy builds on Björn Salomonsson’s experiences as a psychoanalytic consultant working with parents and their babies. Emotional problems during the perinatal stages can arise and be observed and addressed by a skilled midwife, nurse or health visitor. Salomonsson has developed a method combining nurse supervision and therapeutic consultations which has lowered the thresholds for parents to come and talk with him. The brief consultations concern pregnant women, mother and baby, husband and wife, toddler and parent. The theoretical framework is psychoanalytic, but the mode of work is eclectic and adapted to the family’s situation and its members’ motivation. This book details such work, which can be applied globally; perinatal psychotherapy integrated with ordinary medical health care. It also explains how psychotherapy can be made more accessible to a larger population. Via detailed case presentations, the author takes the reader through pregnancy, childbirth and the first few years of life. He also brings in research studies emphasizing the importance of early interventions, with the aim of providing therapists with arguments for such work in everyday family health care. To further substantiate such arguments, the book ends with theoretical chapters and, finally, the author’s vision of the future of a perinatal health care that integrates medical and psychological perspectives. Psychodynamic Interventions in Pregnancy and Infancy will appeal to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists working in this area, as well as clinical psychologists, clinical social workers and medical personnel working with parents and infants. Review "Some books do make a difference, and this is one of them. With knowledge and compassion, Salomonsson addresses how to help troubled parents and infants. The theoretical framework is psychoanalytic, integrated with research findings from various fields that may explain emotional states. He creates a comprehensive theory about the unique characteristics of the perinatal period, and provides rich clinical examples from work with mothers, fathers and babies, from pregnancy and through early infancy to toddlerhood. He also discusses how the external world and the therapist’s internal world impact therapeutic work. These are complex issues, but Salomonsson writes in a way that draws the reader in to join him, his mentors and his patients in their explorations."-Tessa Baradon, Consultant, Anna Freud Centre, London; Visiting Adjunct Professor, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. "Björn Salomonsson’s excellent book is at the crossroads of four disciplines: neurosciences, obstetrics, neonatology and psychoanalysis. Through significant clinical examples, it deepens the understanding of the emotional turmoil raised by an infant’s birth, and simultaneously proposes precise and elaborate theoretical developments for investigation in this new field. It also describes in detail how a psychotherapist should find his/her place in every unit of neonatology, both to teach the health care team and to help the families with their newborn."-Florence Guignard, Training analyst of the Paris Society and Past President of the COCAP/IPA. "The undeniable benefit of early psychotherapeutic interventions for infants and parents has come as a surprise to us all. Björn Salomonsson takes us on a riveting journey into the depths of his unique therapeutic work with babies and parents, beginning in the prenatal period and moving to the early postnatal development. He presents an astutely designed panoply of rich case reports and deep insights into psychoanalytic thinking against a sound backdrop of empirical research. With conceptual clarity and coherence, he bridges the clinical and scientific arenas, offering an excellent foundation both for therapeutic work and future research efforts."-Kai von