[The screaming baby. A family dynamic study on causes, sequelae and therapeutic possibilities in the crying baby].

The main goal of this paper is to point at the still unknown aetiology of the "screaming babies". To neglect the corresponding symptoms or to inadequately treat them mostly results in a derangement of the behaviour of the children even years afterwards, resulting in abnormal behaviour, psychosomatic symptoms or even retardation of development, as can be observed during psychotherapeutic treatment later on. Analyzing aetiologic factors will give hints for therapy, which enable us to help and support these children or their suffering parents. Since we believe that multifactorial reasons lead to the symptoms of the "screaming baby", the aetiologic aspect will be demonstrated on three levels: Neurophysiological aspects, dysfunction of the mother-child relationship and also family-dynamic aspects in the context of the family as a whole.