Part I, The Questions and Their Background, Chapter 2, Perspectives and Approaches to Infancy Summary and Analysis

Stern borrows methods and findings from developments psychology and clinical practice, so Chapter 2 must explain the assumptions of both disciplines and the challenges of integrating them. First, Stern distinguishes the clinical infant and the observed infant, the first of which is the infant theorizes about in clinical practice and that is somewhat a theoretical construction, the second of which is comprised of the observed behavior of the infant. These two approaches must be integrated.

Collaboration between these two points of view was not always possible. Observed infants engaged primarily in nonsocial behavioral while the clinical infant was thought to be connected to the social world. But not infant observers have begun to think about how infant senses...