In This Issue/Abstract Thinking: Back to the Future

Abstract

In this third installment of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Journal, Dr. Theodore Shapiro, Professor Emeritus and Director of Infant Psychiatry at Weil Cornell Medical College, provides historical perspective on foundational studies in early child development (p. 207). He provides the context through which studies on mother–infant dyads emerged, starting with rudimentary initial observations of infants in typical and stressed conditions and progressing to extensive case observations guided by principles of scientific inference examining the complex interactions between infants and their caregivers over the course of development.