The starting-point of this article was one published earlier in the Dutch Journal of Client-Centered Psychotherapytitled “Some Comments on Imitation and Intersubjectivity in Neonates and Infants in Relation to Some Forms of Psychotherapy” (Peters, 2003). In that article, I demonstrated the importance of imitation in early life for well-developed intersubjectivity and for a well-established functional development in general. The intention of this article is a more thorough investigation into the possible relationship between imitation, intersubjectivity, and pretherapy. Although I published an extended article on pretherapy in this journal (Peters, 1999) I first give a summarized version of the principles of pretherapy. In the second part, I expand on some relevant research on early childhood imitation and intersubjectivity, whereas the third part deals with the relation between imitation, intersubjectivity, and pretherapeutic reflections, which places pretherapy in a developmental psychological frame of reference.
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