Trad P V
Child and Adolescent Outpatient Department, Cornell University Medical Center, White Plains, NY 10605.
Am J Psychother. 1991 Apr;45(2):243-60. doi: 10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1991.45.2.243.
Because of increasing signs that the mother-infant dyadic relationship is not always as idyllic as we would like to believe, a number of therapeutic approaches have been developed to explore conflicts within the dyad. These approaches range from a psychoanalytic approach to a behaviorist approach to a family-therapy approach. When considered individually, none of these models comprehensively integrates both the mother's and the infant's objective behavioral manifestations and subjective representations. The concept of previewing, however, provides an integrated vision of the dyad's behaviors and representations. Furthermore, previewing addresses issues posed by imminent development. Principles of previewing were applied to two cases to: (1) demonstrate that the infant's future development would not threaten mother-infant intimacy, and (2) instill in the mother representational skills for coping with the perceived threat of the infant's increasing autonomy. As such, previewing can be used as a technique for preventing and resolving incipient psychopathology.
