title: [Early interactions between mother and child and the development of the psychological life].
abstract: Recent research on the perceptual and behavioural performance of the new-born suggest that he has neuromotor and sensory capacities which are programmed to enable him to react in a special way to the stimuli engendered by a human presence. The work of T. B. Brazelton leads us to think that the "good enough mother" develops a relationship with her infant not only by exploiting this special sensitivity which the new-born has to signals of human presence but also by respecting the boundaries of resistance with which a burgeoning mental life opposes the excitation of the impact of an active presence. In admitting that the psyche exploits mental functions to give shape and sense to its state of tension, early mother-child interactions, because they condition the setting up of mental functioning, also influence the beginning of psychic functioning.
authors.affiliation: Université de Liège.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Decerf
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008606:Mental Processes; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010553:Personality Development
vernacular_title: Les interactions précoces de la mère et de l'enfant et la naissance de la vie psychique.