ABSTRACT
To function as a human being we need structure and predictability. Our systems are not designed to cope with constant change and uncertainty. We need to organise and establish patterns in order to reduce uncertainty, to predict. Fine details that do not conform are glossed over. However, from a psychoanalytic perspective, it is the fine detail that is of particular interest; that is, the unexpected. Analytic observation is sustained and concentrated. The method of infant observation involves the observer visiting the family for one hour on a weekly basis for the first year or two of a baby's life. Insight, that is, looking inside, implies a capacity for observation. The issue of distance and observation is examined by Britton (1998), when he links observation to the earliest Oedipal situation. One of the obvious clinical benefits from analytic observation of infants is the close exposure to development in the preverbal period.
