作者通过对婴儿的观察，以及对儿童的心理治疗过程，总结出了诸多有关人的情感的起源和发展的潜意识规律。本书是对她工作的一个简洁推介，抛开了研究的过程，直接将她工作中发现的有关人的（特别是婴儿期的）爱、恨、攻击、性欲等复杂的心理过程进行展示和讲解。

The pioneering contribution to infant psychology that gave us separation and individuation documents with standard-setting care the intrapsychic process of a child's emergence from symbiotic fusion with the mother toward affirmation of his own psychological birth. Available for the first time in paperback to a new generation of students and clinicians on the twenty-fifth anniversary of its original publication.