Introduction to Honoring Anni Bergman

Abstract

ABSTRACT This section honors Anni Bergman as a pioneer in theory, research, and clinical work across the lifespan. The papers were selected because they demonstrated deep understanding of the developmental process as applied to clinical work, in ways that reflect Dr. Bergman’s own practice. Singletary elaborates on Bergman’s later writing on rapprochement, seeing it as a lifelong process of dealing with the inevitable pains of life and its limitations, not just an early phase of development. Diamond et al. bring a developmental perspective to separation anxiety, its transformations, and links to later pathology/normality. Gold’s research-informed work in parent infant treatment emphasizes hearing the voice of the baby and creating a play space for listening as key in emphasizing mismatch and repair. Blom’s complex case presentation emphasizes the maternal in the treatment of a traumatized mother as she seeks safety as a parent wrestling with the ghosts of her nursery, and the traumatizing social systems in which she exists. Belinson et al. present an approach to supporting the most marginalized and vulnerable children, in families suffering from poverty, social marginalization, and intergenerational trauma. Throughout, there is insistence on creating space for multiple developmental processes including finding ways to be together. Lastly, Harrison presents a single case in which she shows the microanalytic process of working with a neurodiverse boy, using methods of building narratives that are outside language and symbolic play.