In the first clinical observation, the mother is immediately thinking in terms of Maria's father's genes to explain her symptoms. This is a good illustration of the powerful influence of the genetic theory of child development, so dominant in our changing world-even on parents who still come to an infant clinic in an attempt to understand their child's problems, and how they could help their resolution.
Actually, quite to the contrary, the two clinical cases described in this article well illustrate the theory that the immediate context is a much more important factor in the appearance of symptoms and in their resolution. And by immediate context, I mean the influence of the parents (the mother especially), either because of recent events in their life or because of painful ancient memories which are awakened by the newborn child. The first case shows particularly well the effect of recent events-the mother's separation from a disturbed father and the fear this little girl has inherited his character-whereas the second case demonstrates the role of the mother's disturbed relationship with her own mother as the cause of her incapacity to separate from her new baby, leading to severe sleeping problems.
The authors describe, through these two cases, two methods of reaching the parents' and the child's problems. In both situations, they succeed in helping the parent (in both cases, the mother) develop her capacity to observe her own self, her reflective function, and thus her capacity to understand that her own affective life is a major factor at the origin of her child's symptoms.
In Watch, Wait and Wonder (WWW), I believe that asking mother to let her child initiate the play puts her in a position to observe her child's behavior in a new light and that also asking her to recall how she felt doing it leads to her own self-reflection. Whatever happens afterward in the sessions in the mother's insight and in the child's progress is the result of the creation of