ABSTRACT
Direct periodical observation of an infant starting soon after birth and continuing over a period of years. In general practice and in a paediatric out-patient department of a hospital, parents attend when trouble arises or when they need advice. In accepting the psycho-analyst’s help the paediatrician, incidentally, extends the usefulness of the analyst to a circle wider than that of his analytic practice. The mental health of the human being is laid down in infancy by the mother, who provides an environment in which complex but essential processes in the infant’s self can become completed. The observation in paediatric practice of psychotit regressions appearing as they commonly do in childhood and even in infancy. Observation of children in homes adapted to cope with difficulties, whether these are antisocial behaviour, confusional states, maniacal episodes, relationships distorted by suspicion, or persecution, or mental defect, or fits.
