Daniel Stern (psychologist)
Encyclopedia
Daniel N. Stern is a prominent psychiatrist and psychoanalytic theorist, specializing in infant development, on which he has written a number of books - most notably The Interpersonal World of the Infant
(1985).
'Daniel Stern's (1985, 1995) research and conceptualization have created a bridge between psychoanalysis and research-based developmental models'.
as an undergraduate, from 1952 to 1956. He then attended Albert Einstein Medical College, completing his M.D. in 1960. He continued his educational career doing research at the NIH in pyschopharmacology from 1962-1964. In 1964, Stern decided to specialize in psychiatric care, completing his residency at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1972, he started a psychoanalytic education at Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.
For more than thirty years he has worked in research and practice as well in developmental psychology
and psychodynamic psychotherapy
.
In his research he dedicated his time to the observation of infants and to clinical reconstruction of early experiences. His efforts contribute to currently existing developmental theories.
He is well known as an expert researcher of early affective mother-child bonding
. Research and discoveries on the field of affective bonding was one of his leading activities.
At this moment, Daniel N. Stern is an honorary professor in Psychology at the University of Geneva
, adjunct professor in the department of Psychiatry at the Cornell University Medical School
and a lecturer at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.
He holds an Honorary Doctorate at the Universities of Copenhagen, Dk; Palermo, It; Mons Hainaut, Be; Alborg, Dk; Padua, It.
The emergent sense gathers together the earliest 'sense of physical cohesion(..."going on being", in Winnicott's term)'.
In the 'next life period, age two to seven months, the infant gains enough experience...[to] create an organizing subjective perspective that can be called a sense of a core self'. At this stage, while intensely involved in social interaction with the [m]other, essentially 'the other is a self-regulating other for the infant...one who regulates the infant.
Thereafter, at the next stage of the subjective self, 'for there to be an intersubjective exchange about affect...the mother must go beyond true imitations, which have been an enormous and imporatant part of her social repertoire during the first six months or so', and develop 'a theme-and -variation format...purposeful misattunements '.
Finally, during the second year of the infant's life language emerges', to provide for a verbal self - creating thereby 'a new domain of relatedness', but one which 'moves relatedness onto the impersonal, abstract level intrinsic to language and away from the personal, immediate level'.
2. In a later edition of The Interpersonal World - 'revisiting a book written fifteen years earlier' - Stern added two more layers to his hierarchy of the self: the 'core self-with-another' preceding the subjective self; and finally the 'narrative self, or selves', developing out of the verbal self.
Highlighting the setting of the narrative self in what he called 'The World of Stories', Stern emphasized how the capacity for 'interpreting the world of human activities in terms of story plots...psychological explanations embedded in the structure of a narrative...unfolds according to a genetically determined timetable' around the age of three or four. On the positive side, 'the child, narrating an autobiographical story...is creating his identity'; on the negative side, however, possibilities for distortion, and for the consolidation of a false self
, also emerge at this time: 'if the lived past and the narrated past are very discrepant...story making can establish and perpetuate distortions of reality - distortions that contribute significantly to mental disturbance'.
The Interpersonal World of the Infant
The Interpersonal World of the Infant is one of the most prominent works of psychoanalyst Daniel N. Stern, in which he describes the development of four interrelated senses of self. These senses of self develop over the lifespan, but make significant developmental strides during sensitive periods...
(1985).
'Daniel Stern's (1985, 1995) research and conceptualization have created a bridge between psychoanalysis and research-based developmental models'.
Biography
Daniel N. Stern went to Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
as an undergraduate, from 1952 to 1956. He then attended Albert Einstein Medical College, completing his M.D. in 1960. He continued his educational career doing research at the NIH in pyschopharmacology from 1962-1964. In 1964, Stern decided to specialize in psychiatric care, completing his residency at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1972, he started a psychoanalytic education at Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.
For more than thirty years he has worked in research and practice as well in developmental psychology
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
and psychodynamic psychotherapy
Psychodynamic psychotherapy
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of depth psychology, the primary focus of which is to reveal the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension. In this way, it is similar to psychoanalysis. It also relies on the interpersonal relationship between client...
.
In his research he dedicated his time to the observation of infants and to clinical reconstruction of early experiences. His efforts contribute to currently existing developmental theories.
He is well known as an expert researcher of early affective mother-child bonding
Maternal bond
The maternal bond is typically the relationship between a mother and her child.While it typically occurs due to pregnancy and childbirth, it may also occur between a woman and an unrelated child, such as in adoption...
. Research and discoveries on the field of affective bonding was one of his leading activities.
At this moment, Daniel N. Stern is an honorary professor in Psychology at the University of Geneva
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...
, adjunct professor in the department of Psychiatry at the Cornell University Medical School
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and a lecturer at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.
He holds an Honorary Doctorate at the Universities of Copenhagen, Dk; Palermo, It; Mons Hainaut, Be; Alborg, Dk; Padua, It.
Theoretical contributions
Stern's most prominent works consider the area of motherhood and infants.The layered self
1. In The Interpersonal World of the Infant, Stern proposed that an infant develops in a series of overlapping and interdependent stages or layers, which are increasingly interpersonally sophisticated. He distinguished four main senses of self: 'the sense of an emergent self, which forms from birth to age two months, the sense of a core self, which forms between the ages of two and six months, the sense of a subjective self, which forms between seven and fifteen months, and a sense of a verbal self '.The emergent sense gathers together the earliest 'sense of physical cohesion(..."going on being", in Winnicott's term)'.
In the 'next life period, age two to seven months, the infant gains enough experience...[to] create an organizing subjective perspective that can be called a sense of a core self'. At this stage, while intensely involved in social interaction with the [m]other, essentially 'the other is a self-regulating other for the infant...one who regulates the infant.
Thereafter, at the next stage of the subjective self, 'for there to be an intersubjective exchange about affect...the mother must go beyond true imitations, which have been an enormous and imporatant part of her social repertoire during the first six months or so', and develop 'a theme-and -variation format...purposeful misattunements '.
Finally, during the second year of the infant's life language emerges', to provide for a verbal self - creating thereby 'a new domain of relatedness', but one which 'moves relatedness onto the impersonal, abstract level intrinsic to language and away from the personal, immediate level'.
2. In a later edition of The Interpersonal World - 'revisiting a book written fifteen years earlier' - Stern added two more layers to his hierarchy of the self: the 'core self-with-another' preceding the subjective self; and finally the 'narrative self, or selves', developing out of the verbal self.
Highlighting the setting of the narrative self in what he called 'The World of Stories', Stern emphasized how the capacity for 'interpreting the world of human activities in terms of story plots...psychological explanations embedded in the structure of a narrative...unfolds according to a genetically determined timetable' around the age of three or four. On the positive side, 'the child, narrating an autobiographical story...is creating his identity'; on the negative side, however, possibilities for distortion, and for the consolidation of a false self
True self and false self
True self and false self are terms introduced into psychoanalysis by D. W. Winnicott in 1960. Winnicott used the term "True Self" to describe a sense of self based on spontaneous, authentic experience, a sense of "all-out personal aliveness," or "feeling real."The "False Self" was, for Winnicott, a...
, also emerge at this time: 'if the lived past and the narrated past are very discrepant...story making can establish and perpetuate distortions of reality - distortions that contribute significantly to mental disturbance'.
The motherhood constellation
In The Motherhood Constellation, Stern describes the motherhood constellation, a mother's instinctual focus on and devotion to her infant, as being critical to the child's development. Psychoanalytic support could take the form of '"the good grandmother transference"...appropriate to the motherhood constellation'.Proto-narratives
In 1995 he introduced the term 'proto-narrative envelope. This "envelope" contains experience organized with the structure of a narrative. But...a story without words or symbols, a plot visible only through the perceptual, affective, and motoric strategies to which it gives rise'. Stern stressed how early experiences of mother-child interaction 'have a beginning, a middle, and an end and a line of dramatic tension; they are tiny narratives..."proto-narrative envelopes"'.Psychoanalytic controversies and wider influences
- 'For the debate between psychoanalytic and behaviouristic accounts of mother-infant relating, and a range of responses to their theoretical differences, see the argument between Andre GreenAndré GreenAndré Green is a French psychoanalyst of global renown.'Among contemporary practitioners, Andre Green...epitomizes an international spirit of independence'.-Life and career:...
and Daniel Stern, Clinical and Observational Psychoanalytic Research: Roots of a Controversy (London 2000)'.
- As an analyst, Stern identified himself as 'post-Freudian', in terms of his emphasis on 'creating transferenceTransferenceTransference is a phenomenon in psychoanalysis characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another. One definition of transference is "the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person's childhood." Another definition is "the...
/countertransferenceCountertransferenceCountertransferenceis defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client—or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client.-Early formulations:...
conditions that allow for a new and better experience of self in relationship with others' - thus relying less on interpretation of the past, and 'more on the object relationsObject relations theoryObject relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment....
aspect (corrective attachmentAttachment theoryAttachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. Attachment theory is an interdisciplinary study...
experiences) and on self-psychology (empathic availability and self-esteem)'.
- The prominent critical theorist and psychologist Félix GuattariFélix GuattariPierre-Félix Guattari was a French militant, an institutional psychotherapist, philosopher, and semiotician; he founded both schizoanalysis and ecosophy...
draws extensively from Daniel Stern's Interpersonal World of the Infant to produce a theory of subjectivity and pre-linguistic consciousness in his book Chaosmose. In explaining Stern's idea, Guattari says, "[Daniel Stern] has notably explored the pre-verbal subjective formations of infants. He shows that these are not at all a matter of "stages" in the Freudian sense, but levels of subjectivation which maintain themselves in parallel throughout life. He thus rejects the overrated psychogenesis of Freudian complexes, which have been presented as structural "Universals" of subjectivity. Furthermore he emphasizes the inherently trans-subjective character of an infant's early experiences, which do not dissociate the feeling of self from the feeling of the other."
See also
- Reverie
- Stern's tripartite self