DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT: THE PROBLEM OF THEORETICAL INFERENCE AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL COHERENCE

The aim of this paper is to analyse, from a historical point of view, the relationships between the psychoanalytic theories of development and those stemming from the domain of developmental psychology (Infant Research) and to discuss some of the methodological problems raised by the integration of these two perspectives. Although psychoanalytic developmental theories have been profoundly influenced by recent observational research on infants, these new perspectives don't refute earlier theories of infancy. In fact, an examination of the evidence indicates that much of the disagreement between the two domains is based on differences concerning the definition of such concepts as. self. and self lot her differentiation as well as strategies of theoretical inference that must be compared. Far from being contradictory, these different perspectives can help build a new theoretical paradigm, integrating clinical knowledge of the process and outcome of psychotherapy, research into the early mother-infant relationship, developmental psychopathology and cognitive neuroscience.