Obituary

Daniel Stern (1934-2013)

Abstract

Daniel (Dan) Stern was an American psychoanalytically trained child psychiatrist whose careful research of infant—parent interaction led to groundbreaking new ways of thinking about the infant, infants’ capacities and development, mothers and the infant–mother and patient–therapist relationship. He was a pioneer in the field of studying videotaped interactions between mothers and babies. Early in his career, Stern made observations of infants and mothers using video, later analysing these records as part of his research project. He brought to light the intimate interactions of infants and their mothers, the findings of which subsequently led to his theory of development of the self occurring within a social context.