The competent infant: Infant mentation is neither primitive nor prerepresentational

Journal title PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE
Author/s Anne Erreich
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2024/3
Language Italian Pages 38 P. 435-472 File size 199 KB
DOI 10.3280/PU2024-003004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Some theories which locate serious adult psychopathology in the pre-verbal infant’s inability to formulate or represent traumatic experience are mentioned, in particular those of Howard B. Lev-ine and Donnel B. Stern. The clinical and academic research findings are considered highly rele-vant to psychoanalytic theorizing, and it is argued that a view of the infant with “primordial” and “unrepresented” states of mind has little evidence to support it. In fact, research findings point to an opposite view: that of the “competent infant”, one with highly accurate perceptual discrimina-tion capacities and an innate ability to register and represent subjective experience in both proce-dural and declarative memory, even prenatally. Given the infant’s competencies, it seems implausible to hold that representational deficits are at the heart of serious adult psychopathology, which is instead seen to be the result of defensive maneuvers against unknowable and unspeakable truth rather than the absence of a pre-verbal representational capacity. Current research findings pose a significant challenge for psychoanalytic theories which espouse so-called “primitive mental states”, non-conscious” states, or “unrepresented”, “unsymbolized”, “unformulated” experience.

Keywords: Child development; Symbolization; Primitive mentation; Unformulated experience; Mental representation

  1. Posner M. I. (1973). Cognition: An introduction. Northbrook, IL: Scott, Foresman (trad. it.: Introduzione ai processi cognitivi. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 1981).
  2. Aisenstein M. (1993). Psychosomatic solution or somatic outcome: The man from Burma. Psychotherapy of a case of haemorrhagic rectocolitis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 74, 2: 371-381.
  3. Aisenstein M. (2006). The indissociable unity of psyche and soma: A view from the Paris Psychosomatic School. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 87, 3: 667-680. DOI: 10.1516/0VBX-1HGY-T86R-P5CB
  4. Alberini C.M., Johnson S.A. & Ye X. (2013). Memory reconsolidation: Lingering consolidation and the dynamic memory trace. In: Alberini C.M., editor, Memory Reconsolidation. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2013, pp. 81-117.
  5. Alberini C.M. &Travaglia A. (2017). Infantile amnesia: A critical period for learning. Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 24: 5783-5795. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0324-17.2017
  6. Anzieu-Premmereur C. (2013). The process of representation in early childhood. In: Levine, Reed & Scarfone, 2013, pp. 240-254.
  7. Arlow J.A. & Brenner C. (1964). Psychoanalytic Concepts and the Structural Theory. New York: International Universities Press (trad. it.: La struttura della psiche nella concezione psicoanalitica. Torino: Boringhieri, 1978).
  8. Auerbach J.S. (1993). The origins of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder: A theoretical and empirical reformulation. In: Masling J. & Bornstein R.F., editors, Empirical Studies of Psychoanalytic Theories: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Psychopathology. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1993, pp. 43-110.
  9. Beres D. & Joseph E.D. (1970). The concept of mental representation in psychoanalysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 51, 1: 1-8.
  10. Bergstein A. (2016). Obsessionality: Modulating the encounter with emotional truth and the aesthetic object. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 64, 5: 959-982. DOI: 10.1177/0003065116673052
  11. Bergstein A. (2018). The psychotic part of the personality: Bion’s expeditions into unmapped mental life. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 66, 2: 193-220. DOI: 10.1177/0003065118766653
  12. Bernstein A.E.H. & Blacher R.S. (1967). The recovery of a memory from three months of age. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 22: 156-167. DOI: 10.1080/00797308.1967.11822594
  13. Bettelheim B. (1967). The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self. New York: Free Press (trad. it.: La fortezza vuota: l’autismo infantile e la nascita del Sé. Milano: Garzanti, 1976).
  14. Bion W.R. (1965). Transformations. London: Heinemann (trad. it.: Trasformazioni: il passaggio dall’apprendimento alla crescita. Roma: Armando, 1973).
  15. Bion W.R. (1970). Attention and Interpretation. London: Tavistock (trad. it.: Attenzione e interpretazione. Roma: Armando, 1973).
  16. Blass R.B. (2016). The quest for truth as the foundation of psychoanalytic practice: A traditional Freudian-Kleinian perspective. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 85, 2: 305-337.
  17. Bohleber W., Fonagy P., Jimenez J.P., Scarfone D., Sverre V. & Zysman S. (2013). Toward a better use of concepts: A model illustrated using the concept of enactment. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 94, 3: 501-530. DOI: 10.1111/1745-8315.12075
  18. Bond E.K. (1972). Perception of form by the human infant. Psychological Bulletin, 77, 4: 225-245.
  19. Botella C. & Botella S. (2001). La figurabilidad psíquica. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu (trad. it.: La raffigurabilità psichica. Roma: Borla, 2004.
  20. Busch F. (2011). The workable here and now and the why of there and then. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 92, 5: 1159-1181.
  21. Busch F. (2016). The search for psychic truths. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 85, 2: 339-360.
  22. Callaghan B.L. & Richardson R. (2012). The effect of adverse rearing environments on persistent memories in young rats: Removing the brakes on infant fear memories. Translational Psychiatry, 2, 7: e138.
  23. Canestri J. (2005). Some reflections on the use and meaning of conflict in contemporary psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 74, 1: 295-326.
  24. Caper R. (1998). Psychopathology and primitive mental states. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 79, 3: 539-551.
  25. Carey S. (2009). The Origin of Concepts. New York: Oxford University Press.
  26. Clarke B. (2017). The epistemology behind the curtain: Thoughts on the science of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86, 3: 575-608.
  27. Coates S.W. (2016). Can babies remember trauma? Symbolic forms of representation in traumatized infants. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 64, 4: 751-776. DOI: 10.1177/0003065116659443
  28. DeCasper A.J. & Fifer W.P. (1980). Of human bonding: Newborns prefer their mothers’ voices. Science, 208, 4448: 1174-1176.
  29. DeCasper A.J. & Spence M.J. (1986). Prenatal maternal speech influences newborns’ perception of speech sounds. Infant Behavior & Development, 9, 2: 133-150. DOI: 10.1016/0163-6383(86)90025-1
  30. Dehaene S. (2020). How We Learn. New York: Penguin.
  31. Diamond M.J. (2014). Analytic mind use and interpsychic communication: Driving force in analytic technique, pathway to unconscious mental life. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 83, 3: 525-563.
  32. Diamond M.J. (2015). The elusiveness of masculinity: Primordial vulnerability, lack, and the challenges of male development. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 84, 1: 47-102.
  33. Diamond M. J. (2020). Return of the repressed: Revisiting dissociation and the psychoanalysis of the traumatized mind. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 68, 5: 839-887. DOI: 10.1177/0003065120964929
  34. Dodd B. (1979). Lip reading in infants: Attention to speech presented in and out of synchrony. Cognitive Psychology, 11, 4: 478-484. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0285(79)90021-5
  35. Eagle M.N. (1984). Recent Developments in Psychoanalysis. A Critical Evaluation. New York: McGraw-Hill (ristampa: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987) (trad. it.: La psicoanalisi contemporanea. Bari: Laterza, 1988). Ediz. su Internet del cap. 11 (ediz. orig. cap. 12): “Carenze di sviluppo e conflitto dinamico”: www.priory.com/ital/documig8.htm.
  36. Eagle M.N. (2011a). La natura sociale della mente. Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 45, 1: 7-22. DOI 10.3280/PU2011-001001 (trad. it. delle pp. 131-143 della ediz. orig. di: Eagle, 2011b).
  37. Eagle M.N. (2011b). From Classical to Contemporary Psychoanalysis. A Critique and Integration. New York: Routledge (trad. it.: Da Freud alla psicoanalisi contemporanea. Critica e integrazione. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 2012; trad. it. delle pp. 131-143: Eagle, 2011a).
  38. Eagle M.N. (2015). Il controtransfert rivisitato. Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 49, 4: 535-572 (una versione successiva in: Eagle, 2018, cap. 2).
  39. Eagle M.N. (2018). Core Concepts in Classical Psychoanalysis. Clinical, Research Evidence and Conceptual Critique. London: Routledge (trad. it. di una bozza del cap. 2: Eagle, 2015).
  40. Eagle M.N., Wolitzky D.L & Wakefield J.C. (2001). The analyst’s knowledge and authority: A critique of the “new view” in psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 49, 2: 457-488.
  41. Erdelyi M.H. (1985). Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Cognitive Psychology. New York: Freeman (trad. it.: Freud cognitivista. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1988).
  42. Erreich A. (1984). Learning how to ask: Patterns of inversion in yes-no and wh-questions. Journal of Child Language, 11, 3: 579-592.
  43. Erreich A. (1994). Primary and secondary process mentation: Their role in mental organization. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 17, 3: 387-406.
  44. Erreich A. (2003). A modest proposal: (Re)Defining unconscious fantasy. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 72, 3: 541-574.
  45. Erreich A. (2007). The anatomy of a symptom: Concept development and symptom formation in a four-year old boy. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 55, 3: 899-922. DOI: 10.1177/00030651070550030601
  46. Erreich A. (2015). Unconscious fantasy as a special class of mental representation: A contribution to a model of mind. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 63, 2: 247-270. DOI: 10.1177/0003065115576999
  47. Erreich A. (2017). Unconscious fantasy and the priming phenomenon. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 65, 2:195-219. DOI: 10.1177/0003065117702105
  48. Erreich A. (2018). Psychoanalysis and the academy: Working across boundaries with linguistics, cognitive/developmental psychology, and philosophy of mind. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 66, 6: 1065-1088. DOI: 10.1177/0003065118819849
  49. Erreich A. (2024a). The innate capacity for representing subjective experience: The infant’s mind is neither primitive nor prerepresentational. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 72, 1: 9-48.
  50. Erreich A. (2024b). “That’s what you say”: Reply to Levine and Stern. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 72, 1: 71-83. DOI: 10.1177/00030651241231224
  51. Erreich A., Valian V. & Winzemer J. (1980). Aspects of a theory of language acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 7, 1: 157-179. DOI: 10.1017/S030500090000708X
  52. Field T.M., Woodson R., Greenberg R. & Cohen D. (1982). Discrimination and imitation of facial expressions by neonates. Science, 218, 4568: 179-181.
  53. Fodor J.A. (1983). The Modularity of Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (trad. it.: La mente modulare. Saggio di psicologia delle facoltà. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1988).
  54. Fonagy P. (1991). Thinking about thinking: Some clinical and theoretical considerations in the treatment of a borderline patient. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 72, 4: 639-656. (trad. it.: Pensare sul pensiero: osservazioni cliniche e teoriche sul trattamento di un paziente borderline. In: Fonagy P. & Target M., Attaccamento e funzione riflessiva [1991-2000]. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 2001, cap. 2, pp. 29-55).
  55. Fonagy P., Luyten, P. & Allison, E. (2015). Epistemic petrification and the restoration of epistemic trust: A new conceptualization of borderline personality disorder and its psychosocial treatment. Journal of Personality Disorders, 29, 5: 575-609.
  56. Freud S. (1915). Metapsicologia. L’inconscio. Opere, 8: 49-88. Torino: Boringhieri, 1976.
  57. Gaensbauer T.J. (1995). Trauma in the preverbal period: Symptoms, memories, and developmental impact. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 50: 122-149. DOI: 10.1080/00797308.1995.11822399
  58. Gaensbauer T.J. (2004). Telling their stories: Representation and reenactment of traumatic experiences occurring in the first year of life. Zero to Three, 24, 5: 25-31.
  59. Goren C.C., Sarty M. & Wu P.Y.K. (1975). Visual following and pattern discrimination of face-like stimuli by newborn infants. Pediatrics, 56, 4: 544-549.
  60. Green A (1975). The analyst, symbolization and absence in the analytic setting: On changes in analytic practice and experience. In memory of D.W. Winnicott. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 56, 1: 1-22.
  61. Green A. (1986). On Private Madness. London: Hogarth.
  62. Green A. (1998). The primordial mind and the work of the negative. International Journal of psychoanalysis, 79, 4: 649-665.
  63. Green A. (2000). Science and science fiction in infant research. In: Sandler, Sandler & Fonagy, 2000, pp. 41-72.
  64. Greenberg J. (2016). Editor’s Introduction: Is truth relevant? Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 85, 2: 269-274.
  65. Grotstein J.S. (1980). A proposed revision of the psychoanalytic concept of primitive mental states, Part 1. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 16, 4: 479-546. DOI: 10.1080/00107530.1980.10745636
  66. Hayne H., Greco C., Earley L., Griesler P. & Rovee-Collier C. (1986). Ontogeny of early event memory: II. Encoding and retrieval by 2- and 3-month-olds. Infant Behavior & Development, 9, 4: 461-472. DOI: 10.1016/0163-6383(86)90018-4
  67. Herzog D. (2017). Cold War Freud. Psychoanalysis in an Age of Catastrophes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (trad. it. di una versione abbreviata del cap. 1: Le “guerre fredde” freudiane: cristianizzazione e desessualizzazione della psicoanalisi negli Stati Uniti del dopoguerra. Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 2017, 51, 1: 25-60.
  68. Hofer M.A. (2014). The emerging synthesis of development and evolution: A new biology for psychoanalysis. Neuropsychoanalysis, 16, 1: 3-22.
  69. Johnson S.C., Dweck C.S. & Che F.S. (2007). Evidence for infants’ internal working models of attachment. Psychological Science, 18, 6: 501-502.
  70. Kabdebon C. & Dehaene-Lambertz G. (2019). Symbolic labeling in 5-month-old human infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 116, 12: 5805-5810.
  71. Kanner L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. The Nervous Child, 2, 3: 217-250 (trad. it.: Disturbi autistici e contatto affettivo. Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 1989, 23, 2: 105-126 [prima parte] e 3: 75-89 [seconda parte]).
  72. Katz W.W. (2016). The experience of truth in psychoanalysis today. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 85, 2: 503-530.
  73. Kellman P.J. & Spelke E.S. (1983). Perception of partly occluded objects in infancy. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 4: 483-524. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0285(83)90017-8
  74. Klein, M. (1946). Notes on some schizoid mechanisms. In Envy and Gratitude and Other Works, 1946-1963. New York: Free Press 1975, 1-24.
  75. Klein M. (1946). Notes on some schizoid mechanisms. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 27, 3/4: 99-110 (trad. it. di una versione del 1952: Note su alcuni meccanismi schizoidi. In: Scritti, 1921-1950. Torino: Boringhieri, 1978, pp. 409-434).
  76. Laplanche J. & Pontalis J.-B. (1967). Vocabulaire de la psychanalyse. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (trad. it.: Enciclopedia della psicoanalisi. Bari: Laterza, 1968).
  77. Levine H. (2012). The colorless canvas: Representation, therapeutic action and the creation of mind. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 93, 3: 607-629.
  78. Levine H. (2020). Reflections on therapeutic action and the origins of psychic life. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 68, 1: 9-25. DOI: 10.1177/0003065120906139
  79. Levine H.B. (2021). Trauma, process and representation. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 102, 4: 794-807.
  80. Levine H.B. (2024). About your next patient: A response to Anne Erreich. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 72, 1: 49-60. DOI: 10.1177/000306512412322269-48
  81. Levine H., Reed G.S. & Scarfone D. (2013). Unrepresented States and the Construction of Meaning: Clinical and Theoretical Contributions. London: Karnac.
  82. Lewkowicz D.J. & Turkewitz G. (1980). Cross-modal equivalence in early infancy: Auditory-visual intensity matching. Developmental Psychology, 16, 6: 597-607. DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.16.6.597
  83. Lyons-Ruth K. (1999). The two-person unconscious: Intersubjective dialogue, enactive relational representation, and the emergence of new forms of relational organization. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 19, 4: 576-617. DOI: 10.1080/07351699909534267
  84. Mahler M. (1972). On the first three subphases of the separation-individuation process. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 53, 3: 333-338. In italiano, vedi: Mahler M.S., Pine F. & Bergman A., The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation. New York: Basic Books, 1975 (trad. it.: La nascita psicologica del bambino. Torino: Boringhieri, 1978).
  85. Mayes L.C. (2005). Interface between psychoanalytic developmental theory and other disciplines. In: Person E.S., Cooper A.M. & Gabbard G.O., editors, Textbook of Psychoanalysis. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2005, pp. 147-158 (trad. it.: L’interfaccia tra la teoria evolutiva psicoanalitica e le altre discipline. In: Psicoanalisi: teoria, clinica, ricerca. Milano: Raffello Cortina, 2006, cap. 9, pp. 237-256).
  86. Meltzoff A.N. (1990). Towards a developmental cognitive science: The implications of cross-modal matching and imitation for the development of representation and memory in infancy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 608: 1-31.
  87. Meltzoff A.N. & Borton W. (1979). Intermodal matching by human neonates. Nature, 282, 5737: 403-404.
  88. Meltzoff A.N. & Moore M.K. (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198, 4312: 75-78.
  89. Meltzoff A.N. & Moore M.K. (1983). Newborn infants imitate adult facial gestures. Child Development, 54, 3: 702-709. DOI: 10.2307/1130058
  90. Meltzoff A.N. & Moore M.K. (1985). Cognitive foundations and social functions of imitation and intermodal representation in infancy. In: Mehler J. & Fox R., editors, Neonate Cognition: Beyond the Blooming, Buzzing Confusion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1985, pp. 139-156.
  91. Menand L. (2021). Too good for this world. The New Yorker, December 20, 2021, pp. 64-68.
  92. Mondloch C.J., Lewis T.L., Budreau D.R., Maurer D., DanneMiller J.L., Stephens B.R. & Kleiner-Gathercoal K.A. (1999). Face perception during early infancy. Psychological Science, 10, 5: 419-422. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9280.00179
  93. Moon C.M. & Fifer W.P. (2000). The fetus: Evidence of transnatal learning. Journal of Perinatology, 20, 8, 2: S37-S44.
  94. Moon C.M., Cooper R.P. & Fifer W.P. (1993). Two-day-olds prefer their native language. Infant Behavior and Development, 16, 4: 495-500. DOI: 10.1016/0163-6383(93)80007-U
  95. Neisser U. (1967). Cognitive Psychology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts (trad. it.: Psicologia cognitivista. Firenze: Martello-Giunti, 1976).
  96. Nelson K. & Fivush R. (2004). The emergence of autobiographical memory: A social cultural developmental theory. Psychological Review, 111, 2: 486 -511. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.111.2.486
  97. Ogden T.H. (1989). On the concept of an autistic-contiguous position. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 70, 1: 127-140.
  98. Oliner M. (2013). “Non-represented” mental states. In: In: Levine, Reed & Scarfone, 2013, pp. 152-171.
  99. Pally R. (2007). The predicting brain: Unconscious repletion, conscious reflection and therapeutic change. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 88, 4: 861-881.
  100. Perris E.E., Myers N.A. & Clifton N.A. (1990). Long-term memory for a single infancy experience. Child Development, 61, 6: 1769-1807.
  101. Peirce C.S. (1894). What is a sign? In: The Peirce Edition Project, editor, The Essentail Peirce, Vol. 2. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998.
  102. Pinker S. (1997). How the Mind Works. New York: Norton (trad. it.: Come funziona la mente. Milano: Mondadori, 2000).
  103. Reid V.M., Dunn K., Young R.J., Amu J., Donovan T. & Rissland N. (2017). The human fetus preferentially engages with face-like visual stimuli. Current Biology, 27, 12: 1825-1828.
  104. Ricoeur P. (1977). The question of proof in Freud’s psychoanalytic writings. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 25, 4: 835-871. DOI: 10.1177/000306517702500404
  105. Rizzolo G.S. (2017). The specter of the primitive. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 65, 6: 945-977. DOI: 10.1177/0003065117742408
  106. Rovee-Collier C. (1997). Dissociations in infant memory: Rethinking the development of implicit and explicit memory. Psychological Review, 104, 3: 467-498. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.104.3.467
  107. Rovee-Collier C. (1999). The development of infant memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 3: 80-85. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8721.00019
  108. Rovee-Collier C. & Cuevas K. (2009). Multiple memory systems are unnecessary to account for infant memory development: an ecological model. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1: 160-174.
  109. Sandler J., Sandler A.-M. & Fonagy P., editors (2000). Clinical and Observational Psychoanalytic Research: Roots of a Controversy. London: Karnac.
  110. Serrano J.M., Iglesias J. & Loeches A. (1992). Visual discrimination and recognition of facial expressions of anger, fear, and surprise in 4- to 6-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 25, 6: 411-425.
  111. Shahar G., Cross L.W. & Henrich C.C. (2004). Representations in action (Or: Action models of development meet psychoanalytic conceptualizations of mental representations). Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 59: 261-293. DOI: 10.1080/00797308.2004.11800741
  112. Sigel I.E. (1999). Development of Mental Representation: Theories and Applications. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  113. Sommervill, J.A., Upshaw M.B. & Loucks J. (2012). The nature of goal-directed action representations in infancy. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 43: 351-387. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-397919-3.00013-7
  114. Sophe R. (2018). An allegiance to absence: Fidelity to the internal void. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 87, 4: 729-751. DOI: 10.1080/00332828.2018.1518084
  115. Stern D. (Donnel) B. (1983) Unformulated experience. From familiar chaos to creative disorder. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 19, 1: 71-99. DOI: 10.1080/00107530.1983.10746593
  116. Stern D. (Donnel) B. (1997). Unformulated Experience: From Dissociation to Imagination in Psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press (trad. it.: L’esperienza non formulata. Dalla dissociazione all’immagine in psicoanalisi. Tirrenia [PI]: Edizioni Del Cerro, 2007).
  117. Stern D. (Donnel) B. (2010). Partners in Thought. London: Taylor & Francis.
  118. Stern D. (Donnel) B. (2015). Review: “Levine, Reed & Scarfone, 2013”. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 96, 2: 493-498. DOI: 10.1111/1745-8315.12275
  119. Stern D. (Donnel) B. (2020). Dissociative multiplicity and unformulated experience: Commentary on Diamond. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 68, 5: 907-920. DOI: 10.1177/0003065120967741
  120. Stern D. (Donnel) B. (2024). Commentary: The role of the theory of unformulated experience in Anne Erreich’s “The innate capacity for the representation of subjective experience: The infant’s mind is neither primitive nor prerepresentational”. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 72, 1: 61-70. DOI: 10.1177/00030651241231222
  121. Stern D. (Daniel) N. (1982). The early development of schemas of self, other, and “self with other.” In: Burkewitz D., editor, Reflections on Self Psychology. New York: International Universities Press, 1982. pp. 49-83.
  122. Stern D. (Daniel) N. (1985). The Interpersonal World of the Child: A View from Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology. New York: Basic Books (trad. it.: Il mondo interpersonale del bambino. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1987).
  123. Stern D. (Daniel) N. (2000). The relevance of empirical infant research to psychoanalytic theory and practice. In: Sandler, Sandler & Fonagy, 2000, pp. 73-90.
  124. Stone L.J., Smith H.T. & Murphy L.B., editors (1978). The Competent Infant Series. New York: Basic Books.
  125. Sullivan H.S. (1940). Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry. New York: W.A. White Psychiatric Foundation (trad. it.: La moderna concezione della psichiatria. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1961).
  126. Sullivan H.S. (1953). The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry. New York: Norton (trad. it.: La teoria interpersonale della psichiatria. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1962).
  127. Super C.M. (1972). “Long term memory in infancy”. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Cit. in: Kagan J., Structure and process in the human infant: The ontogeny of mental representation. In: Bornstein M H. & Kessen W. editors, Psychological Development from Infancy. New York: Routledge, 1979, pp. 159-182.
  128. Terr L. (1988). What happens to early memories of trauma? A study of twenty children under age five at the time of documented traumatic events. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 1: 96-104. DOI: 10.1097/00004583-198801000-00015
  129. Valian V., Winzemer J. & Erreich A. (1981). A little-linguist model for learning syntax. In: Tavakolian S., editor, Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981, pp. 188-209.
  130. Vartzopoulos I. & Beratis S. (2012). Bodily manifestations in the psychoanalytic process. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 71, 3: 657-681.
  131. Wolff P. (1996). The irrelevance of infant observation for psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 44, 2: 369-392.

Anne Erreich, Il bambino competente: la mente infantile non è primitiva né pre-rappresentazionale in "PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE" 3/2024, pp 435-472, DOI: 10.3280/PU2024-003004