Transition to parenthood: Studies of intersubjectivity in mothers and fathers

Recent developments in different areas of research, psychoanalysis, infant research, cognitive neuroscience, and developmental science, highlight the dynamic, intersubjective sense of personality organised in term of “self-with-other” (Ammaniti & Trentini, 2009). The evolution of the human species attuned human mothers, both psychologically and neurobiologically, to the smell and the sounds of the baby, and to his expressions and behaviours; in this way, mothers can immediately understand when they need to intervene to protect or feed the baby, who is immature and helpless. At the same time, babies with higher ability in tuning and understanding others have been favoured by natural selection, gaining a better chance of survival. For this reason, human infants are very social from their birth and develop that human-specific ability to read intentions and participate in collaborative activities defined by shared goals and intentions (Tomasello, 1999; Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behne & Moll, 2005). Newborns are able to imitate actions seen on a human face (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977, 1999), showing an early form of intersubjectivity based on cross-modal transferring of form and timing. As human brain and mind are equipped in order to understand possible intentions of other people by watching their facial expression or their goal-directed actions, intersubjectivity is the main process that allows parents and the child to share feelings and emotions and to develop a mutual coordination (Stern, 1985; Trevarthen, 2005). The temporal coordination of relational behaviours between parents and child, defined as “synchrony” (Gordon & Feldman, 2008), gradually becomes internalised, influencing the infant development through the repeated interactions. Studies on mother–father–child interactions have also shown that infants are able to detect behaviours exchanged between parents: these aspects highlight the role of triadic coordination in shaping the family alliance (Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warnery, 1999; Gordon & Feldman, 2008). The connection between parents and child develops from pregnancy, when parents have to reorganise their identity including the baby within their relationship, creating an intersubjective matrix (Stern, 2004) which provides a scaffolding for subsequent development (Emde, 2007). Along with such psychological reorganisations, deep changes occur in parental brain, especially in maternal one, sustaining the onset and the maintenance of nurturing behaviours, as well as the sensitivity to infant affective cues (Ammaniti & Gallese, 2014). In our chapter we will first focus on the contribution of psychoanalysis and infant research in the area of the psychological transformations in the parents’ mind that occur during pregnancy and in the post-natal period. A particular emphasis will be addressed to internal representational scenario of mothers and fathers, who develop in this period a representation of themselves and of the partner as parents, as well as of the future baby. We will illustrate how the foetal image in the ultrasound can interweave with maternal and paternal representations, allowing parents to share conscious fantasies about the baby. In line with these aspects of co-parenting, we will present an observational procedure based on the parental interaction with the image of foetus in the ultrasound which activate parental affiliative processes and intuitive parenting behaviours (Papousek & Papousek, 1987) involved in the transition to parenthood. We will then illustrate how recent advances in scientific knowledge and technology have encouraged a fertile dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience, which affected especially the field of parenting, where the relation between mind and brain is particularly relevant. Neurobiological research has identified specific “parental brain circuits” that underpin caregiving behaviours, modulating parents’ attention and responsiveness to infant affective expressions (Kinsley & Lambert, 2006; Mayes, Swain & Leckman, 2005; Panksepp, 1998). We will also evidence how the recent discovery of mirror neurons has revealed the embodied basis of intersubjectivity (Gallese, 2009), providing new insights on the mechanisms of maternal empathy (Lenzi et al., 2009), and on the influence of early attachment experiences in subsequent parental attitude (Lenzi et al., 2012). Finally, we will conclude discussing the possibility to translate the neuroscientific advances in preventive programmes for high risk families, in order to promote infant wellbeing through the development of parental abilities.