ARE POSTPARTUM DEPRESSIONS A MOTHER-INFANT RELATIONSHIP DISORDER

The study of postpartum depressions is particularly important when one studies pathogenic influences on child development, because they occur-with a rather high incidence-at the onset of the attachment process. Although the mediating factors responsible for child effects of depression were classically seen as following a deficit model, we suggest that active processes of meaning attribution and of attendant interactive patterns play an important role both in the etiology of depression and in the mediating effects on the child. We use epidemiological data, the clinical description of a typical case of postpartum depression, and some results of a larger study of outcomes in mother-infant psychotherapy to validate our main hypothesis: Many postpartum depressions are best understood as a relational disturbance. The many psychological tasks imposed by the baby induce a disorder affecting parenting and mother-baby exchanges, while not necessarily invading all sectors of the parents' psychological functioning. The main clinical and research evidence for this hypothesis is that maternal depression is often lifted-surprisingly rapidly-when psychotherapy is aimed at the mother-infant relationship.