Postnatal Depression and Emotion: The Misfortune of Mother-Infant Interactions

Emotional communication can be viewed as a fundamental factor in children's emotional, social, and cognitive development. Most developmental psychologists agree that the recognition and expression of emotions through early social interaction between the mother and the child play a particularly important role in children's development (Bandura, 1992; Bowlby, 1969; Sroufe, 1996; Trevarthen, 1979). Moreover, as Paul Ekman reminds us, nature and nurture are both intrinsically involved in children's psychological development: “It is never a question only of nature or only of nurture. We are biosocial creatures, our minds are embodied, reflecting our lives and the lives of our ancestors.” Ekman (1996, p. 393). This biosocial conception of emotional development, defended in the theories put forward by a number of pioneers in the child development field, therefore suggests that the child-caregiver relation constitutes a system which is simultaneously based on the innate skills of the baby while also having the task of elaborating and refining these skills.