In generic psychiatry there has been increasing interest among scientists for the developmental perspective. However, professionals active in the mental health care of people with intellectual disability (ID) have not shown the same degree of interest. The author of this article, who has had a liberal amount of rewarding experiences with the…

This paper presents a broad discussion of the importance of a child's attachment to his mother and the relationship of such attachment to the child's optimal psychic development. Research at the Children's Unit of the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (which focused on children's aggression and gender formation) is described. This…

Childhood abuse has been implicated in such difficulties as developmental lags, family dysfunction, social problems, and emotional distress. This paper presents a review of the empirical literature which examines the relationship between physical abuse and object relations impairment. Data in the literature were commonly derived from either…