ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the changing relationship between a mother and her young child following mother's pregnancy and the birth of a second baby. It is based on the observations of a 2-year-old girl presented to a Young Child Observation seminar. The chapter provides a brief history of the development of this seminar within the Tavistock Training. Very often Young Child Observations are permeated by oedipal themes of competition, exclusion and secretiveness. The chapter focuses on the father’s role, as mediated by the observer, through transferential functions assigned to him by the child. It describes the young child’s search for a private space with the observer, physically separate from the intense intimate relationship with the mother together with her new baby. This emotional space provides a boundary around the primitive emotions experienced by the child, thus allowing the development of some capacity for self-observation and reflection.
