Psychoanalytic infant observation

Psychoanalytic infant observation is a distinctive experiential approach to training that was developed at the in London by Child psychoanalyst Esther Bick. In 1948 she collaborated with Dr John Bowlby to develop the approach to training psychotherapy students in conducting an infant observation. It has since become an essential feature of pre-clinical training in child and adult psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and related fields throughout the world.

The practice of psychoanalytic infant observation usually involves a weekly observation over a two year period of an infant from soon after birth and until their second birthday. This naturalistic form of enquiry provides a unique opportunity to enrich and extend observation skills. Students learn at first-hand how a relationship begins between babies and their families and enables them think about how babies grow physically, mentally and emotionally. This experience of observing ordinary family life is valuable for professionals who work with difficult, complex and disturbing presentations.

Psychoanalytic Infant Observation is a distinctive approach that was the inspired initiative of Esther Bick. As a Child Psychoanalyst she pioneered a particular technique of studying babies in the ordinary life of their family environment. In 1948, she began teaching at the and in collaboration with Dr John Bowlby she initiated the method of psychotherapy trainees conducting an infant observation. This involved visiting a family to observe their infant from birth to two years. These weekly observations in the natural environment of the baby’s home offered a very vivid learning experience of development. The observers came to appreciate the mutual influence of the developing relationship between mother and baby, and father and siblings. Importantly, the observer also considered how the feelings aroused in them during the observation and how their presence influenced events.

Esther Bick’s 1964 paper ‘Notes on infant observation in psycho-analytic training’ set out the model of infant observation and her view of how much can be learned from it — how to observe, the nature of early infantile anxiety, especially the baby’s fear of ‘falling to bits’, the impact of maternal anxiety and postnatal depression, and the significance of good observational capacities for future child analysts. She emphasized the gathering of data over time, the need to wait for meaning to emerge, and the observer’s responsibility to respect their role as learner and to behave with tact and reliability.

Bick’s ideas took shape at the same time as Wilfred Bion’s work on ‘A theory of thinking’, and these two explorations of the emotional and cognitive dimensions of the early mother-child relationship are profoundly complementary. Both build on the work of Melanie Klein and her pioneering analysis of children.

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