Biography of the first year: A case study integrating psychoanalytic, cognitive‐developmental and mother‐infant systems perspectives

A case study of a normal infant's first year of life is interpreted in terms of psychoanalytic, cognitive‐developmental and mother‐infant systems perspectives. While each of these approaches highlights different aspects of the developmental process, a complementary relationship is established among them on the basis of important conceptual convergences and mutually compatible predictions. After the models themselves are reviewed and compared, they are applied to case material collected from parent interviews and direct observations of one child. The objective is to generate a comprehensive “biography” of this baby's early personality development by a weaving together of diverse theoretical strands. A working relationship among the theories is demonstrated through the analysis of the case material, while interpretation of the material itself is enriched by the variety of vantage points applied to it.