Infant Observation

Psychoanalytic Infant Observation was developed by Esther Bick, who, in 1948, as head of the new Child Psychotherapy was working to discover how much could be understood by paying very close attention to babies who communicate in different ways long before becoming verbal. This experience would widen the trainees’ sensitivity to so much more than the words of their future patients. Infant Observation is now included in most psychoanalytic and many parent-infant training programs. The very concentrated attention of observers sensitizes them to nonverbal communication in people or patients of any age. Observation as part of training has now spread across the world, sometimes with online seminars led by experienced teachers from other countries. Online devices enabled continuity of weekly observations and teaching during the COVID pandemic.  The observation was to start as near to the birth as possible, and Bick hoped that the trainees would become aware of the extreme feelings states of infancy, some of which might be evoked in them. The written descriptions of observations were to be discussed week by week in small observation seminars. This practice proved very fruitful and is now included in most psychoanalytic and some parent-infant training. Many variations of this observational method have been developed by observing toddlers, using the method in different work contexts and with other age groups. Further variants have included research into “participant” observation with toddlers at risk of autism, and children in institutional and foster care where they have proved clinically effective. Infant Observation has spread around the world, both in person, and through online teaching (which was also very significant during the COVID pandemic when observations themselves also took place online).