Wakelyn, Jenifer

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  Tavistock and Portman E-Prints Online      JOURNAL ARTICLE   Original citation:  Wakelyn, Jenifer (2007) A half day conference: 'What do we see when we observe infants and children? Cultural and historical perspectives on psychoanalytic observation.'. Infant Observation: The International Journal of Infant Observation and it's Applications, 10 (3). pp. 235-237. ISSN 1369-8036  © 2007 Jenifer Wakelyn This version available at: http://taviporttest.da.ulcc.ac.uk/  Available in Tavistock and Portman E-Prints Online: Oct 2009 The Trust has developed the Repository  so that users may access the clinical, academic  and research work of the Trust.   Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in  Tavistock and Portman E-Prints Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://taviporttest.da.ulcc.ac.uk/) of  Tavistock and Portman E-Prints Online.  This is an electronic version of an article published in the Infant Observation© 2007 Copyright Taylor & Francis; Infant Observation is available online at www.informaworld.com http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=1369%2d8036&volume=10&issue=3&spage=235.  You are encouraged to consult the remainder of this publication if you wish to cite from it.    CONFERENCE REPORTA half-day conference: ‘What do we see when we observeinfants and children? Cultural and historical perspectiveson Psychoanalytic Observation’The Association of Child Psychotherapists Programme Planning Committee withTaylor & Francis Publishers and The International Journal of Infant Observation andits Applications, Saturday 12 May 2007JENIFER WAKELYN27 Temple Fortune Hill, London NW11 7XL, UKThis conference, held at University College, London, provided a valuable opportunity todraw together historical and contemporary perspectives and applications of infant andyoung child observation.In her introduction as Chair (and author of Infant Observation at the Heart of Training)Janine Sternberg (2005) pointed to some of the historical antecedents of the observationalmethod, including Darwin’s observations of his own baby in the 1880s. She linked thedevelopments that psychoanalytic observation can bring for the student-practitioner toHouzel’s description of three levels of receptivity  perceptual, emotional/empathic andunconscious.Nick Midgley (Anna Freud Centre, Marlborough Family Centre and Centre ofPsychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex) added to the historical perspective with alively talk evocatively illustrated with recently discovered photographs and film from theAnna Freud archive. As a leading figure in the integration of direct observation of childrenwith the new psychoanalytic knowledge emerging from the consulting room in earlytwentieth century Vienna, Anna Freud played a crucial role in the emergence of thepsychoanalytic tradition of observation. She recommended infant observation to medicalstudents to ‘witness the birth of the mind out of the body and to see the close interaction ofthe mind with the needs and functions of the human body’.Her major contribution came during the Second World War when she founded theHampstead War Nurseries. The three nurseries in Hampstead and Essex looked afterchildren affected by the war as well as undertaking research into children’s psychologicalCorrespondence: E-mail: jwakelyn@tavi-port.nhs.ukISSN 1369-8036 print/ISSN 1745-8943 online # 2007 Tavistock Clinic FoundationDOI: 10.1080/13698030701698208Infant Observation, December 2007; 10(3): 235237Downloaded By: [Tavistock and Portman Library] At: 14:09 18 May 2010needs to inform post-war child care policy. James Robertson was one of six ConscientiousObjectors who worked in the Anna Freud nurseries to provide a male presence among themainly female staff, some of whom slept in chicken houses to allow visiting parents to staywith their children. High turnover among the staff, many of whom were refugees,diminished when a training programme of evening lectures and reading was set up.The Anna Freud method was one of direct observation; staff were trained to makedetailed observations of the children’s play and behaviour, including their eating,sleeping and interactions with adults and other children. A card index was kept ofsalient observations under specific themes. As a result of these observations, especially ofthe impact of separations on young children, the organization of the nurseries waschanged and ‘artificial families’ were set up. Striking levels of developmental delay wererapidly alleviated; and at the same time other complications ensued as the childrenbecame clingy, possessive, demanding, jealous, and visibly distressed when staff left.Anna Freud concluded that ‘choosing between the two evils of broken, interruptedattachments or an existence of emotional barrenness, the latter is the more harmful as itoffers less prospect for normal character development . . . what helps the child to growup normally is the painful, disturbing process of learning how to deal with suchemotions’.Cathy Urwin (Tavistock Centre) gave a presentation entitled ‘Becoming a mother in anethnically and culturally diverse community: Infant observation as a research method usedin exploring changing aspects of identity’. She described findings from the psychoanalyticobservation of six babies and first-time mothers followed from birth to one year, as part ofthe research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, with their‘Identities and Social Action’ programme.The six observers formed a working group and prepared by reading relevant papers.Each seminar began with a recapitulation of the family history to lead into an account ofthe atmosphere in the session and of the emotional work the baby was requiring of themother, and how this was reflected in the material. The observers were also encouraged torecord their reactions to unfamiliar practices; experiences of shock were noted in manysessions.The six mothers are part of a larger group of mothers who were all interviewed before,during and at the end of their baby’s first year using the Free Association NarrativeInterview (FANI) method developed by Hollway and Jefferson (2000). Infant observationwas found to be especially useful in revealing how the emotional and physical demands ofthe relationship with the baby, its pressures and pleasures, evoke the mother’s infantileexperiences, memories and associations. As readers will see in many of the papers collectedhere, the method also showed how the mother’s changing sense of herself as a parent ismobilized in the context of social and cultural expectations. Drawing on observations ofWhite, Bangladeshi, African and African Caribbean mothers and babies, the presentationhighlighted differences in handling separateness and separations and the role of theextended family in care and support of mother and baby. A common experience in manyfamilies included passing the baby around; this seemed an important theme for motherswho have been displaced, echoing their own experience of displacement.Cathy Urwin also addressed methodological issues, the adaptation of the infantobservation model developed by Esther Bick and the contribution of the weekly seminarto the research process and in deepening understanding of the processes involved indeveloping identity and the impact of cultural differences.236 J. WakelynDownloaded By: [Tavistock and Portman Library] At: 14:09 18 May 2010Margaret Rustin (Tavistock Clinic) in her concluding remarks adroitly gathered upthemes relating to infant observation within clinical practice and a lively and wide-rangingdiscussion followed.ReferencesHollway, W. & Jefferson, T. (2000) Doing Qualitative Research Differently: Free Association, Narrative and theInterview Method (London: Sage).Sternberg, J. (2005) Infant Observation at the Heart of Training (London: Karnac).Conference report 237Downloaded By: [Tavistock and Portman Library] At: 14:09 18 May 2010

Doing Qualitative Research Differently: Free Association, Narrative and the Interview Method

Infant Observation at the Heart of Training (London: Karnac). Conference report 237 D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ T a v i s t o c k a n d P o r t m a n L i b r a r y ] A t : : M a y

Infant Observation at the Heart of Training (London: Karnac). Conference report 237 D o w n lo ad ed B y: [ Ta vi st oc k an d Po rt ma n Li br ar y] A t: 4: Ma y

A half day conference: 'What do we see when we observe infants and children? Cultural and historical perspectives on psychoanalytic observation.'

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