This book gives a timely exploration of the importance of sibling relationships from a multi-disciplinary perspective. It presents for the first time an account of the work on brothers and sisters by Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein and Anna Freud, whose pioneering and vital work on sibling issues has not been systematically examined before.

Series Editor’s Preface -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Psychoanalytic Perspectives -- Freud on brothers and sisters: a neglected topic -- Melanie Klein’s thoughts on brothers and sisters -- “From egocentricity to companionship”: Anna Freud’s understanding of sibling relationships -- Developmental, Attachment, and Systemic Perspectives -- Sibling relationships across the life-span -- Sibling relationships: an attachment perspective -- Keeping siblings in mind: family therapy with children and sibling relationships -- Aspects of Siblinghood from Early Childhood to Adolescence -- Reflections on the observation of infants and early sibling relationships -- Siblings in middle childhood -- Adolescence: issues for brothers and sisters -- Sibling Relationships in Different Family Contexts -- Siblings in the context of divorce and family re-ordering: the past and the future -- Brothers and sisters in care -- Clinical research: a psychotherapeutic assessment model for siblings in care -- Siblings in Adversity: Effects of Death and Illness on Siblings from Childhood to Adulthood -- The impact of sibling loss and illness -- Doubly bereaved -- Lost babies—lost siblings: the effect of perinatal loss in the next generation -- Endpiece