Infant Observation
‘At the beginning I was met with this challenge……. ‘put aside your books, theories and preconceived ideas, and come and play’.
This took me out of my comfort zone.
Others in the group had their own challenges.
But my weekly encounter with my baby, together with the reflection and processing of that experience in the writing up of notes, in the seminar group and in my personal therapy, has led me into deeper levels of human experience both within myself and with my patients.
It was a life enhancing experience both personally and professionally, and one I shall not forget.’
I wrote these words soon after completing a two year Jungian infant observation course in 2012. I am planning to offer an infant observation group myself now in Sussex (see below) and I offer here some thoughts and reflections from myself and others as an introduction to the experience.
A Transformative Experience
In her paper, Margot Waddell (2006) gives an account of the history of infant observation from its beginnings in the 1960s and she describes the tripartite structure of the method, involving weekly observation, writing of detailed notes and small weekly supervised seminar group. She goes on to write,
‘Such an account of the observational process is deceptively simple. For what the majority of those who have undertaken an infant observation attest to is the intensity of the impact of the experience, its lasting effects, and its centrally formative contribution both to a psychodynamic understanding of intimate encounters with other minds and relationships, and to the influence of such encounters on their own self-understanding. As Margaret Rustin has put it, ‘The capacity to contain and observe emotionally powerful psychic phenomena is the basis for knowledge of oneself, and for that contact with psychic reality which is at the core of an authentic personality’ .
Some such capacity, it seems to me, underlies all great literature – from Homer, to Virgil, to Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, Blake, Keats, George Eliot and beyond.’
The author describes the crucial role of containment and reverie. She writes with poetic sensibility and her paper is interwoven with literary quotes which bring a lyrical quality to the paper and a sense of the universal and profound truths that underlie her themes. Infant observation facilitates ‘learning from experience’ of an ‘unprecedented kind’, in particular the attitude of ‘negative capability’ described by Keats as ‘the capacity to sustain a frame of mind that can tolerate being ‘in uncertainties, Mysteries, and doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason’. She writes ‘familiarity with this formulation is in danger of draining from it the essence of challenge.’ It is ‘a hard won goal for psychoanalytic work, nowhere more finely honed than in the weekly encounters with the world of the infant and his/her family.’
A recent book, ‘Infant Observation – Creating Transformative Relationships’ (2014), containing a selection of seminal papers, traces the development of infant observation from its beginnings in Esther Bick’s 1964 paper, through to its’ ever widening scope and possibilities today not only in training but also in research and as a therapeutic method in child psychiatry.
In the final paragraph of the book the editor states:
'The field of infant observation has reached a ‘new level of maturity and emotional vigour…..the application seems endlessly creative…..almost any aspect of the way an infant observation is carried out or discussed in seminars may be varied. But if the focus remains on being receptive to and reflective of the truth of the emotional experience whatever its impact, infant observation will continue to be a transformative experience for all involved. The observer may therefore in an indefinable way understand better the baby whom they once were.’
Infant Observation with Soul in Mind
My paper, 'Birds, Beasts and Babies - Notes from an Infant Observation', won the Roszika Parker prize and was published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy in 2014. I have presented my paper on several occasions, most recently at an event organised by the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy in November 2022.
The editor of the Journal writes,
'Sally McLaren's essay is based on her final report covering the second year of an infant observation. 'As images and symbols are amplified', she writes, 'threads link together'. Her paper.....moves seamlessly from the fine grain of an observational recording, and of the inner world, to a series of theoretical associations in the Jungian tradition. The use of the word 'notes' in her title is apposite: she unobtrusively notes the relationship between the observational data and a framework in which theoretical ideas are called to mind by an exchange of words, looks or behaviours. Synchronicities - a 'uniting factor' - run through the essay and are thoughtfully and imaginatively charted.'
Soon after my paper was published I read Robert Romanyshyn’s book, , ‘The Wounded Researcher – Research with Soul in Mind.’ This inspired me to think about how the process and methodology of infant observation might be re-imagined using the insights of depth psychology and focusing more on the subjective experience of the observer and imaginal processes and less on theory….an approach which would indeed keep soul in mind.
This led to the writing of my second paper on this theme, 'The Winnowing Way - Infant Observation with Soul in Mind', which was published in Harvest, the journal of the C. G. Jung Club, in December 2021.
Infant Observation in Sussex
I am planning to offer an Infant Observation group myself now in Sussex. Although I am keen that this should be an 'in person' group, I am also considering ways in which to make such a group accessible to those outside Sussex. If you might be interested in joining a group with me I would be very keen to hear from you wherever you are located. Please do get in touch. I would be happy to have an informal exploratory chat. I would also be happy to send a copy of either of my papers for your personal use if you would like to read them. I believe this is an experience which can be of great value not only to those at the beginning of their professional life but also, and perhaps in some ways even more so, to those who may be qualified analysts and psychotherapists with many years' experience.
References
Waddell, M. (2006). Infant Observation in Britain: The Tavistock Approach. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 87(4): 1103-1120.
Thomson-Salo, F. (ed). (2014). Infant Observation – Creating Transformative Relationships. London, Karnac.
Romanyshyn, R., (2013). The Wounded Researcher – Research with Soul in Mind. Spring Journal Books.