I met professor Daniel Stern for the first time in a small Congress in Riga, Latvia in 1994. We were both attending the City reception and he happened to stand beside me while we were waiting for the ceremonies to begin. He politely asked who I was and I naturally told him that I had read his book The Interpersonal World of the Infant, and that it had absolutely loved it. With the cheek of a young researcher I also told him that I disagreed with him. «Oh, I´m interested to hear with what», he said. I told him that I thought that sense of being would come before sense of becoming. He smiled at me warmly with a glint of amusement in his eyes and said «Well, that is a possibility, but I think I´ll stand behind my own opinion.»
I met him several times after that in various WAIMH Congresses but thinking of our first encounter always brings a smile to my face. I remember him as a warm person, who treated everybody with respect and was curious about people and their ideas, while at the same time standing firmly behind his own.
Authors
Puura, Kaija,
WAIMH Associate Executive Director,
Finland
