News from Brazil: psychoanalytic observation and its seminar group as a space for the integration of splitting aspects in the parent-infant relationship1

1. A version of this paper was presented at the VIII International Congress of Infant Observation – Esther Bick Method, El despertar de la vida mental en el encuentro con el mundo externo – observaciones y teorias, August 2008, Buenos Aires.

Abstract

This paper initially describes a network of expansion and spreading of Esther Bick′s contributions, mainly her infant observation method, among professionals involved with studying and working with early relationships, considering developments within the field of therapeutic consultations and early intervention (Winnicott, Lebovici), in São Paulo, Brazil. Starting from the experience of professionals with the psychoanalytic observation method (Bick/Tavistock/Mélega), infant observation groups have been formed, contributing to deepening and enriching training in several fields. The experience of the observers and the supervision group is here discussed, as containing spaces for working through primitive aspects and splitting processes in the contact of parent-infant relationships. Vignettes of weekly observations are presented: a baby who evoked concern about his development, whose parents seemed to benefit from the observer′s attitude of looking and getting in contact with painful perceptions, and a baby of an adolescent single mother to whom different worlds struggle for integration, in an ambivalent construction of her maternal function, and to whom the observer represents a possibility of less splitting and acting-outs. The modulating and mediating function of the observer′s mind and the amplifying resonance within the supervision group are demonstrated, facilitating access to elements of our internal worlds not always readily available to our conscious contact with the external world.

Keywords:

• infant observation
• seminar group
• containment
• integration of splitting
• parent-infant relationship

Notes

1. A version of this paper was presented at the VIII International Congress of Infant Observation – Esther Bick Method, El despertar de la vida mental en el encuentro con el mundo externo – observaciones y teorias, August 2008, Buenos Aires.