Watching me, watching you, watching them- the gestation and birth of a mother-infant observation seminar leader

ABSTRACT

Leading mother-infant observation seminars is often imbued with anxiety and uncertainty. While there is a significant body of literature, notably by Bick (1964), Harris & Bick (2011), Magagna (1997), Saltzberger-Wittenberg (1997) and Miller et al. (1989) , which examine the endeavour and reflect on it, interested practitioners have seldom been formally trained; this was the author’s experience. The article examines the parallels between the growth and development of an effective seminar leader and the early growth and development of the human infant’s parents. There is a parallel in the lack of formal preparation and the considerable anxiety evoked. The article reflects on the seminar leader's role in containing the seminar group and individual observers as each learns from the experience of grappling with primitive, unconscious feelings, including the transference to the observer and her countertransference. Bion’s (1963) concept of container-contained is apposite here as are the notions of so-called ‘maternal’ and ‘paternal’ functions and the position of the psychoanalytic third.

KEYWORDS:

• mother-infant observation
• attunement
• container-contained
• maternal and paternal function
• seminar leader
• transference
• countertransference
• dyad

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan (Sue) Ruth Schraer

Sue Schraer holds an MA in Psychotherapy and an MA in Education. She is a member of the British Psychoanalytic Council and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy where she is a registered adult psychotherapist. She is a Parent-Infant Psychotherapist, trained at the Anna Freud National Centre, and is a former teacher and Further Education Lecturer. She has led Infant Observation Seminars on the Masters in Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology (UCL/Anna Freud National Centre); a training in Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychotherapy and on the Sino-British Project. She is a Visiting Lecturer at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust and has Guest Edited the New Psychotherapist (UKCP), Issue 67, Autumn, 2017: Beginnings.