{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]],"date-time":"2026-07-16T17:07:27Z","timestamp":1784221647156,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,4,30]],"date-time":"2015-04-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1430352000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Infant Mental Health Journal"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2015,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title><jats:p>\u201cGhosts in the nursery.\u201d \u201cVisitors from the unremembered past.\u201d Fraiberg, Adelson, and Shapiro's (1975) words convey the relational \u201cintruders\u201d that they perceived while working with mothers and infants. A mother's unresolved past is a driving force within the treatment of mother\u2013infant dyads. Working with these families, the therapist strives to process and metabolize the distress of the dyad while enabling the mother to contain the infant more fully. This article proposes that Fraiberg et\u00a0al.\u2019s metaphor may be newly elaborated utilizing Bion's (1962) original theoretical conceptualization of the \u201ccontainer and contained.\u201d He posited that an infant projects distressing affective states upon the mother, who contains the experience, transforms the feelings, and then enables the infant to reintroject a more tolerable experience. This lays the foundation for the relational experience of being known by another and facilitates the infant's development of self\u2010knowledge and emotional regulation. We utilize Fraiberg et\u00a0al.\u2019s original case material to identify ways in which ghosts in the nursery disrupt the processes of the container and contained. Bion's ideas may help enrich our understanding of how the therapeutic relationship enables cycles of containment, transitioning the material \u201cghosts\u201d from being contained by the infant to being contained by the therapist, and to ultimately being transformed so that the mother can reattribute them to the past.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/imhj.21509","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,4,30]],"date-time":"2015-04-30T19:25:22Z","timestamp":1430421922000},"page":"262-274","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["WHAT IS THE CONTAINER\/CONTAINED WHEN THERE ARE GHOSTS IN THE NURSERY?: JOINING BION AND FRAIBERG IN DYADIC INTERVENTIONS WITH MOTHER AND INFANT"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"36","author":[{"given":"Johanna C.","family":"Malone","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carolyn Joy","family":"Dayton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Wayne State University"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,4,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_10_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/1127008"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/14616730903338985"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_4_1","volume-title":"Infant research and adult treatment: Co\u2010constructing interactions","author":"Beebe B.","year":"2002"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_5_1","first-page":"38","volume-title":"Developmental psychopathology","author":"Belsky J.","year":"2006"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_6_1","volume-title":"Learning from experience","author":"Bion W.R.","year":"1962"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_7_1","volume-title":"Elements of psychoanalysis","author":"Bion W.R.","year":"1963"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_8_1","volume-title":"Attention and interpretation","author":"Bion W.R.","year":"1970"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_9_1","volume-title":"Intersubjective processes and the unconscious: An integration of Freudian, Kleinian and Bionian perspectives","author":"Brown L.J.","year":"2011"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315800561","volume-title":"Containing states of mind: Exploring Bion's container model in psychoanalytic psychotherapy","author":"Cartwright D.","year":"2014"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_11_1","volume-title":"Working with trauma: Lessons from Bion and Lacan","author":"Charles M.","year":"2011"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_12_1","first-page":"127","volume-title":"Enhancing early attachments: Theory, research, intervention, and policy","author":"Cooper G.","year":"2005"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/1097-0355(198621)7:1<19::AID-IMHJ2280070104>3.0.CO;2-1"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/imhj.20253"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_15_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pedhc.2014.09.001"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_16_1","first-page":"411","article-title":"Changing caregivers: Coping with early adversity","volume":"37","author":"Dozier M.","year":"2007","journal-title":"Psychiatric Annals"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_17_1","first-page":"178","volume-title":"Enhancing early attachments: Theory, research, intervention, and policy","author":"Dozier M.","year":"2005"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_18_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/imhj.20011"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_19_1","first-page":"155","article-title":"Bion and babies","volume":"8","author":"Elmhirst S.I.","year":"1980","journal-title":"Annual of Psychoanalysis"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_20_1","first-page":"i","volume-title":"Selected writings of Selma Fraiberg","author":"Emde R.N.","year":"1987"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_21_1","volume-title":"Seeds of illness, seeds of recovery","author":"Ferro A.","year":"2005"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_22_1","volume-title":"The primary triangle: A developmental systems view of mothers, fathers, and infants","author":"Fivaz\u2010Depeursinge E.","year":"1999"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_23_1","volume-title":"Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self","author":"Fonagy P.","year":"2002"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_24_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8624.1991.tb01578.x"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_25_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/000306519304100403"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_26_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1516\/0020757001600165"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_27_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0002-7138(09)61442-4"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_28_1","first-page":"1181","article-title":"The social biofeedback theory of parental affect\u2010mirroring","volume":"77","author":"Gergely G.","year":"1996","journal-title":"International Journal of Psychoanalysis"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_29_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/imhj.10094"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_30_1","first-page":"125","article-title":"Mourning and its relation to manic\u2010depressive states","volume":"21","author":"Klein M.","year":"1940","journal-title":"International Journal of Psychoanalysis"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_31_1","first-page":"99","article-title":"Notes on some schizoid mechanisms","volume":"27","author":"Klein M.","year":"1946","journal-title":"International Journal of Psychoanalysis"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_32_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1516\/0020757001599537"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_33_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/imhj.20071"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_34_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/07351699909534267"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_35_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/00030651030510031501"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_36_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/(SICI)1097-0355(199623)17:3<257::AID-IMHJ5>3.0.CO;2-L"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_37_1","first-page":"67","volume-title":"Atypical attachment in infancy and early childhood among children at developmental risk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development","author":"Lyons\u2010Ruth K.","year":"1999"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_38_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/(SICI)1097-0355(199823)19:3<282::AID-IMHJ3>3.0.CO;2-O"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_39_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/imhj.20008"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_40_1","first-page":"161","volume-title":"Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention","author":"Main M.","year":"1990"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_41_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/imhj.20264"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_42_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/14616730252982491"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_43_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1516\/JECN-FBNV-TUUE-NUHX"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_44_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1516\/1D1W-025P-10VJ-TMRW"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_45_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1516\/T41H-DGUX-9JY4-GQC7"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_46_1","volume-title":"Relationship disturbances in early childhood: A developmental approach","author":"Sameroff A.J.","year":"1989"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_47_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/07351690701310698"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_48_1","first-page":"762","volume-title":"Handbook of attachment","author":"Slade A.","year":"2008"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_49_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/imhj.20179"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_50_1","volume-title":"The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology","author":"Stern D.N.","year":"1985"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_51_1","volume-title":"The motherhood constellation: A unified view of parent\u2010infant psychotherapy","author":"Stern D.N.","year":"1995"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_52_1","volume-title":"Playing and reality","author":"Winnicott D.W.","year":"1971"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_53_1","first-page":"318","volume-title":"Disorganized attachment and caregiving","author":"Zanetti C.A.","year":"2011"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_54_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1056-4993(18)30418-8"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_55_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zeanah C.H. Benoit D. Barton M.L. &Hirshberg L.(1996).Working Model of the Child Interview Coding Manual. Unpublished manuscript.","DOI":"10.1037\/t47439-000"}],"container-title":["Infant Mental Health Journal"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.wiley.com\/onlinelibrary\/tdm\/v1\/articles\/10.1002%2Fimhj.21509","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/imhj.21509","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,3]],"date-time":"2023-10-03T20:05:48Z","timestamp":1696363548000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/imhj.21509"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2015,4,30]]},"references-count":54,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2015,5]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1002\/imhj.21509"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/imhj.21509","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0163-9641","1097-0355"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0163-9641","type":"print"},{"value":"1097-0355","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2015,4,30]]}}}