A Girl's Childhood: Psychological Development, Social Change, and The Yale Child Study Center

A uniquely detailed study of child development theory and practice in the post–World War II era

Sixty years ago, a group of prominent psychoanalysts, developmentalists, pediatricians, and educators at the Yale Child Study Center joined together with the purpose of formulating a general psychoanalytic theory of children’s early development. The group’s members composed detailed narratives about their work with the study’s children, interviewed families regularly and visited them in their homes, and over the course of a decade met monthly for discussion. The contributors to this volume consider the significance of the Child Study Center’s landmark study from various perspectives, focusing particularly on one child’s unfolding sense of herself, her gender, and her relationships.

Linda C. Mayes, M.D., is a developmental pediatrician, child and adult psychoanalyst, and researcher at the Yale Child Study Center and Distinguished Visiting Professor in Psychology at Sewanee, The University of the South. Stephen Lassonde is Dean of Student Life at Harvard University, where he also teaches courses on the history of childhood and concepts of age in the West.