Perezhivanie: What Have We Missed about Infant Care?

Abstract

Evidence indicates that the nature of adult–infant attachments will impact on the quality of care the infant receives, although findings are often couched in outcomes for children rather than adult concerns. In this article, the argument is made that the adult's experience of caregiving is also an important area for investigation. Vygotsky's theoretical concept of perezhivanie is offered as a unit of analysis that allows the researcher a window into the caregiving experience, but from the perspective of the caregiver. Employing perezhivanie presents both theoretical and methodological challenges, yet allows researchers to examine subjective experience within sociocultural frameworks and, most importantly, to grapple with the affective nature of caring for infants.