Traumatic situations in infant observation

Abstract

The paper illustrates the capacity for development in a mother and her baby which is linked, in the author's view with the capacity to be in contact with reality and with supportive internal objects. The observed baby was born with a livid angioma which marked her face and affected the inside of her mouth. Her mother, who had not been able to prepare herself psychically for the birth, was enabled, by her own mother's experience of the real baby, to face the shock and narcissistic disappointment of not having her fantasied perfect baby, and to be able to make a loving and growing relationship with her little daughter whose beauty could be seen and appreciated despite the blow of having a baby with an angioma.

Keywords:

• trauma
• birth trauma
• mother-infant relationship
• observation
• Bion
• Meltzer
• emotional development

Notes

1. I am referring to the moment of birth, but I could equally have chosen another event such as weaning as the arena for exploring these turbulent emotions.

2. Following Melanie Klein's descriptions of splitting and idealisation (1946).