What Can the Matter Be?: Therapeutic Interventions with Parents, Infants and Young Children

Summary

This book presents the psychoanalytic approach developed through more than twenty years of clinical work with parents, infants, and young children at the Tavistock Clinic. It focuses on understanding children’s behaviour and emotional communication within the context of their relationships with parents and the wider family.

The authors explore common difficulties in early childhood, including disruptive behaviour, tantrums, separation and sleep problems, feeding difficulties, parental depression, and difficulties within the parental relationship. Rather than viewing the child’s behaviour simply as an individual problem, the book considers what the behaviour may communicate about the child’s emotional experience and the family’s relationships.

A central idea is that therapeutic work involves trying to understand “what the matter can be” together with the family. The therapist observes the child’s play and behaviour, listens to the parents, and pays attention to unconscious processes such as projection, anxiety, and containment. The assessment and intervention are therefore closely connected, and the aim is not simply to provide advice but to help parents and clinicians develop a shared understanding of the underlying emotional difficulties.

Overall, the book emphasizes that early psychological difficulties are best understood within the parent–child and family relationship, and that thoughtful therapeutic intervention can help families make sense of difficult experiences and support healthier emotional development.