ABSTRACT
Esther Bick developed the format for psychoanalytic infant observation at the Tavistock Clinic, where it was incorporated into the training for child psychotherapy as early as 1949. Infant observation has its basis in "the Kleinian understanding of the nature of early infantile anxiety, the requirement for containment of the fragile ego, and the mother's role as the prime container". The observer visits the infant's home setting at a regular time each week; she does not try to be "invisible", but neither does she initiate any action. She simply observes and absorbs the effect of whatever happens within the allotted hour. The way in which the observer takes in the scene, and the way she is viewed and used by the family, clearly prefigures the experience of the transference and countertrartsference of the clinician, thus making observational studies of this kind an exceptionally useful training tool.
