This chapter presents some guiding principles for a theory of early intervention that result from a developmental psychoanalytic systems perspective. Psychoanalytic thinking has provided important incentives for such a perspective, but recent research has taken this thinking in surprising directions. Our goal is to articulate basic principles, relate them to traditional concerns of psychoanalysis, and update them with current perspectives from the developmental sciences.

A number of dialectical themes pervade our principles. First among these is the interplay of biology and culture. Development includes aspects of both domains, and it includes their dynamic influences on each other. All principles of intervention include this interplay. A second theme is the interplay of affiliation and control. Attachment research has emphasized the dimension of affiliation in the developing individual but, equally important, is the dimension of control or the child's developing sense of boundaries. From early infancy on the interventionist must consider both dimensions. A third can be thought of as the interplay of science and mystery in our work. We gain knowledge from our science, but the gain is always to some extent uncertain and singular because we as observers participate in creating that knowledge. Because of our transactions, there is always a zone of mystery. We attempt to minimize uncertainty in our knowledge by using multiple windows of observation and by applying differing methods and points of view.