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Cited by 299Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology ResearchAttachment and Relationship DynamicsMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Measuring the Ghost in the Nursery:an Empirical Study of the Relation between Parents’ Mental Representations of Childhood Experiences and their Infants’ Security of Attachment

Fonagy, Peter, Steele, Miriam, Moran, George, Steele, Howard, Higgitt, Anna·1993·Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
DOI 10.1177/000306519304100403
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Abstract

This paper presents a summary of the Anna Freud Centre-University College London, Parent-Child Project. Its most important finding was that the security of the infants' relationship with both parents at 12 and 18 months could be predicted on the basis of qualitative aspects of the parents' accounts of their own childhoods collected before the birth of the child. This confirmed Selma Fraiberg's observations concerning the reemergence of childhood conflicts at early stages of childbearing. Possible mechanisms mediating this link are explored with particular reference to the role of the parents' accurate mental representations of the infants' mental world.

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Crossref · 10.1177/000306519304100403

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72 of 72 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Mentalization, operationalized as reflective functioning, plays a crucial role in the transmission of attachment security.

    “Interestingly, these studies highlighted the crucial role of mentalization, operationalized as reflective functioning, in the transmission of attachment security”

    From Psychoanalytic Interventions with Abusive Parents: An Opportunity for Children’s Mental Health (2022) · cites this paper as [27]

  • Internal Working Models of self and other are transmitted from one generation to the next along with defensive strategies for coping with distress in the face of perceived danger.

    “Empirical studies conducted within the framework of attachment theory have fully demonstrated that the Internal Working Models (IWM) of self and other are transmitted from one generation to the next along with defensive strategies for coping with distress in the face of perceived danger.”

    From Psychoanalytic Interventions with Abusive Parents: An Opportunity for Children’s Mental Health (2022) · cites this paper as [27]

  • Abusive parents who themselves were abused children develop ineffective defenses against mental pain that do not allow the development of the ability to mentalize and process emotional pain, and they defensively resort to identifying with the aggressor.

    “Mentalization-based treatment originates from the observation that abusive parents who themselves were abused children develop ineffective defenses against mental pain related to the abusive experiences suffered in the past and that these defenses do not allow the development of the ability to mentalize and process their emotional pain. On the contrary, they defensively resort to identifying with”

    From Psychoanalytic Interventions with Abusive Parents: An Opportunity for Children’s Mental Health (2022) · cites this paper as [27]

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Related

Authors
Fonagy, P., Steele, M., Moran, G., Steele, H., & Higgitt, A.
Affiliations
University College London (GB)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
1993-11
Volume
41
Issue
4
Pages
957-989
ISSN
  • 0003-0651 (ISSN-L)
  • 1941-2460
DOI
10.1177/000306519304100403
OpenAlex
W2165495612
Cited by
299
References
72
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 10
FWCI
8.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
Keywords
attachment security, parent-infant relationship, parent-child therapy
MeSH terms
Adult, Anxiety, Separation, Awareness, Concept Formation, Defense Mechanisms, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Object Attachment, Parent-Child Relations, Personality Assessment, Personality Development, Pregnancy, Psychoanalytic Theory

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