ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author points some interesting parallels between the modelling and mapping devices developed in recent work in complexity theory and chaos theory, and psychoanalytic method and suggests how these are relevant to infant observation too. An obvious convergence between chaos and complexity theory and psychoanalysis lies in Bion's concept of catastrophic change. There may be a good fit between the frame of inquiry set out by complexity theory and the procedures and techniques of "naturalistic" infant observation, just as there has been shown to be such a fit with the procedures of clinical research. Reflections on the relevance of complexity theory to the debate on evidence-based psychotherapy can be found in Robinson. Complexity theory became something of a social movement, its methodological holism, and its idea that order could be discerned in turbulent environments, giving a meta-theoretical backing to the idea of "sustainability".
