A depressed toddler and his mother reunite in the toddler group

This chapter describes how a depressed toddler and his mother grew to interact more pleasurably during their two-year membership of an Anna Freud Centre toddler group. Through the psychoanalytic frame of reference in both observing and thinking about this mother-toddler dyad, people were able to help them prevent further distance in their relationship. A sad little boy Ari avoided his mother as well as other adults and children. Ari’s mother described her return to work as something she needed for herself, but was tormented by her mix of relief, sadness, and guilt, and called home often to check in with the nanny. Mother’s concern that she alone was responsible for giving Ari the “very best” hinted at her abiding sense of inadequacy and guilt, not to mention unconscious anger at Ari for having profound needs that competed and conflicted with her own. Ari had become a sociable, verbal, enthusiastic player with the leaders and other children.