Infants learn to cope with erratic parenting. Dad shouts, mum dies, or vice versa

Infants learn to cope with erratic parenting. Dad shouts, mum dies, or vice versa – the actual event is not material, the context is all. Infants have no physical defence, so they devise a mental one – “this isn't happening to me”. So here’s a message to a dad, and to all parents – no parent I have ever met wants to give their child a psychosis, and I’m sure we don’t – but some infants are caught on the hop, and get stuck. They can be unstuck, but only when they can be persuaded that thinking is safe again – simple, but not easy. Infant survival strategies get prolonged into adulthood, ‘infant-ism’ – it doesn't work, it can be shown not to work, and with enough trustworthy emotional support, non-psychotic thinking can be restored.